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The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that loneliness is more frequently present in citizens of ethnic minority groups than in natives. The current study investigates whether ethnic differences in emotional and social loneliness between Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Dutch adults living...

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Autores principales: Visser, Marlies A., El Fakiri, Fatima
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5172492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27497438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw115
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author Visser, Marlies A.
El Fakiri, Fatima
author_facet Visser, Marlies A.
El Fakiri, Fatima
author_sort Visser, Marlies A.
collection PubMed
description Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that loneliness is more frequently present in citizens of ethnic minority groups than in natives. The current study investigates whether ethnic differences in emotional and social loneliness between Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Dutch adults living in the Netherlands are due to ethnic differences in the presence and/or impact of an array of possible risk factors, such as partnership, health and socioeconomic status. Methods: The data were collected in 2012 as a part of a general health questionnaire of the Public Health Services in the four major cities of the Netherlands, containing 20.047 Dutch, 1.043 Moroccan, 1.197 Turkish and 1.900 Surinamese respondents. Results: Structural equation models showed that ethnic differences in emotional and social loneliness can be ascribed to ethnic differences in the prevalence and impact of several risk factors. Main findings were that all three ethnic minority groups reported feeling less healthy and more discriminated against than the Dutch group, which was related to increased loneliness. Perceived financial difficulties and people in the neighbourhood not getting along had more impact on feelings of loneliness for the Turkish group than loneliness for the other ethnic groups. Furthermore, members of the Turkish group were found more at risk to feel anxious or depressed, which was in turn related to increased loneliness. Conclusions: Policy makers are encouraged to develop multifaceted prevention strategies concerning those risk factors that are most changeable, thereby focusing per risk factor on those ethnic groups for which it is an important contribution to loneliness.
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spelling pubmed-51724922016-12-23 The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness Visser, Marlies A. El Fakiri, Fatima Eur J Public Health Migration, Ethnic Differences Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that loneliness is more frequently present in citizens of ethnic minority groups than in natives. The current study investigates whether ethnic differences in emotional and social loneliness between Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Dutch adults living in the Netherlands are due to ethnic differences in the presence and/or impact of an array of possible risk factors, such as partnership, health and socioeconomic status. Methods: The data were collected in 2012 as a part of a general health questionnaire of the Public Health Services in the four major cities of the Netherlands, containing 20.047 Dutch, 1.043 Moroccan, 1.197 Turkish and 1.900 Surinamese respondents. Results: Structural equation models showed that ethnic differences in emotional and social loneliness can be ascribed to ethnic differences in the prevalence and impact of several risk factors. Main findings were that all three ethnic minority groups reported feeling less healthy and more discriminated against than the Dutch group, which was related to increased loneliness. Perceived financial difficulties and people in the neighbourhood not getting along had more impact on feelings of loneliness for the Turkish group than loneliness for the other ethnic groups. Furthermore, members of the Turkish group were found more at risk to feel anxious or depressed, which was in turn related to increased loneliness. Conclusions: Policy makers are encouraged to develop multifaceted prevention strategies concerning those risk factors that are most changeable, thereby focusing per risk factor on those ethnic groups for which it is an important contribution to loneliness. Oxford University Press 2016-12 2016-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5172492/ /pubmed/27497438 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw115 Text en © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Migration, Ethnic Differences
Visser, Marlies A.
El Fakiri, Fatima
The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title_full The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title_fullStr The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title_full_unstemmed The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title_short The prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
title_sort prevalence and impact of risk factors for ethnic differences in loneliness
topic Migration, Ethnic Differences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5172492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27497438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw115
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