Examining Loneliness and Its Correlates in a Sample of People with Spinal Cord Injury

Thursday, November 10, 2022

3:55 PM – 4:11 PM

Presenting Author(s)

Susan Robinson-Whelen, PhD

Assistant Professor / Scientist
Baylor College of Medicine / TIRR Memorial Hermann
Houston, Texas, United States

Slides

Non-presenting Author(s)

Rosemary B. Hughes, PhD

Research Professor and Senior Research Scientist
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana, Montana, United States
Heather B. Taylor, MS, MEd, PhD

Director/ Spinal Cord Injury and Disability Research, TIRR MH
TIRR Memorial Hermann/UTHealth
Houston, Texas, United States
JR

Jessica Rodriguez

Research Coordinator
TIRR Memorial Hermann, United States
SH

Sally Holmes, MD

Associate Professor
Baylor College of Medicine / Michael E. DeBakey VAMC Houston, Tx, United States
KS

Kristen Staggers

Senior Biostatistician
Baylor College of Medicine, United States
CM

Charles Minard, PhD, MS, BS

Associate Professor of Biostatistics
Baylor College of Medicine, United States

The presentation will review results of a cross-sectional survey study examining loneliness, measured using the 20-item UCLA Loneliness Scale-v3, in a sample of 346 individuals with SCI from the US. Descriptive data on individual items as well as summary scores will be presented as well as results of confirmatory factor analyses examining alternative factor structures of the 20-item measure. Results of analyses exploring the relation between loneliness and measures of demographic, disability, health-related, and social characteristics will be presented. Results reveal that loneliness scores were relatively high with a majority of participants reporting that they “sometimes” or “often” feel alone, left out, isolated, lacking in companionship, that others are around them but not with them, and that their interests and ideas are not shared by those around them. Social support and social participation were most strongly related to loneliness and accounted for the greatest variance in regression models predicting loneliness.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the limited literature on loneliness among people with SCI
Describe the similarity in the factor structure of the UCLA Loneliness Scale with that reported in other populations
Describe loneliness items frequently endorsed by people with SCI
Describe characteristics of people with SCI who have higher loneliness scores