Lonely years of life in Norway

Summary

To assess how widespread loneliness is, we will calculate the expected life years in loneliness and examine how it has developed between the 1990s and 2010s.

Abstract

Loneliness is an unpleasant condition for us humans and is associated with mental, physical and cognitive health as well as with mortality. Concerns about a so-called loneliness epidemic have been expressed repeatedly. Arguments underlying this include trends towards living alone, the emergence of modern communication technology and the decline in religious participation and community involvement. To assess how widespread loneliness actually is, we will calculate the expected life years in loneliness and examine how it has developed between the 1990s and 2010s.

This will provide important insight into both the extent of the problem and trends over time. Information about subjective feelings of loneliness and objective measures of being alone (e.g., being single / widowed, living alone) from the Trøndelag health survey (HUNT) and official mortality statistics will be combined. In addition, we will describe gender and socio-economic differences for expected life years in loneliness.