Prevalence of loneliness and its associated factors in middle-aged and older adults with breathlessness: a nationally representative cohort study
Ruth A Hackett, Sam Norton, Joseph Chilcot, Laura Cottrell, Matthew Maddocks, Irene J Higginson, Martha Canfield, Keir E J Philip, Lisa Jane Brighton · 2026
Read Prevalence of loneliness and its associated factors in middle-aged and older adults with breathlessness: a nationally representative cohort study by Ruth A Hackett, Sam Norton, Joseph Chilcot, Laura Cottrell, Matthew Maddocks, Irene J Higginson, Martha Canfield, Keir E J Philip, Lisa Jane Brighton (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13423144.txt.
Description
Ruth A Hackett leads a study of loneliness among middle-aged and older adults in England who live with breathlessness. The symptom limits social life as well as movement. Its link with loneliness had barely been measured, so the team turned to a national ageing survey from 2010–11 covering 8,195 people aged 50 and over.
The symptom affected 28.4% of participants, and 19.3% met the survey threshold for loneliness. That share climbed steadily with symptom grade. It reached 34.9% at the worst grade assessed, against 16.3% among those free of it. People with worse symptoms also more often lived alone, were unmarried, and reported depression, long-term illness, and mobility trouble. The authors argue breathlessness care should screen for loneliness too.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ruth A Hackett, Sam Norton, Joseph Chilcot, Laura Cottrell, Matthew Maddocks, Irene J Higginson, Martha Canfield, Keir E J Philip, Lisa Jane Brighton |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |