‘Meaningful relationships is key’: Study shows loneliness levels improving amongst senior Albertans

Loneliness levels are improving for seniors in Alberta, but nearly three in 10 still feel isolated. Researcher Alex Bierman discusses this new study.

A recent study shows loneliness levels are improving for seniors in the province, but nearly three in 10 older Albertans are still feeling isolated and a quarter of them lack companionship. One of the study’s researchers, a professor at the University of Calgary, Alex Bierman joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton’s Kent Morrison to discuss what they’ve found.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: You spoke to seniors in 2022 and again this year. What did it show between those two timelines?

Alex Bierman: The good news is that we saw decreases in all of the markers that we looked at. We looked at three major markers of loneliness that have been used across the world, and in each case, reports of these markers declined.

There’s still a lot of concern when three in 10 older Albertans are saying that they feel isolated and a quarter saying they feel left out. That’s a pretty big indication that we’ve got a bedrock of older adults in Alberta who are still feeling clearly quite lonely.

Kent: Let’s start with the improvement. What changed between 2022 and now to have that improvement?

Alex: It was a couple of things. First of all, we came out of COVID-19, so our comparison year was 2022 but also there has been increased attention to loneliness among older adults and society at large. The kind of programs, awareness and policy makers that people have been putting into place I think has helped the situation.

Kent: What’s the difference between those two? And why do you think there is a difference?

Alex: We didn’t actually ask directly about loneliness, instead we asked three markers of loneliness, so feeling isolated is a clear marker of loneliness. So is feeling left out and lacking companionship.

Kent: How can we make improvements? I would imagine coming out of the pandemic itself was a big improvement. What else needs to be done to help people?

Alex: What our research shows is what really seems to decrease loneliness is not so much having interactions with people, but having meaningful interactions with people. Especially when you feel like you matter to those in your lives. It’s not so much having lots of meet-ups with people, going to religious services or other community events, as it is when the interactions we have with people we feel like we matter to others.

What really seems to be needed at this point, given that we’re seeing this bedrock of loneliness, is more opportunities for older adults to form meaningful, impactful social connections with each other. That’s the kind of policies and community activities I think we need at this point.

Kent: How much of this lies in family members or friends of Albertans who are aging to make sure that they establish and maintain those connections?

Alex: That’s definitely a big part of it. It’s these close interpersonal relationships that are most key to loneliness. Feeling like we matter to those in our lives is what’s really key for decreasing loneliness.

Kent: Would you have advice for those right now, no matter their age, to make sure that they continue these connections and maintain them as you get older?

Alex: Absolutely. Something that we’re finding in our research is one of the real key threats to these quality social relationships is when people experience financial strain. I think that’s what a lot of Albertans are facing today. I think something that everyone can do is keep in mind that when we experience financial problems, it doesn’t mean that we don’t matter to those in our lives.

We want to try to engage with those people in our lives. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t have to take a lot of money. Trying to keep those quality relationships going, even when we face financial strain, is a really important ingredient to deter loneliness across people’s lives.