Year of study as predictor of loneliness among students of University of Gondar

OBJECTIVES: Loneliness is individual's subjective sense of lacking familial or social contact to the degree that they wanted. It is responsible for reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine loneliness and its association with year of study among University of Gondar students, 2018/19. Cross-sectional study design was used on 404 Medical and Health Sciences students selected by systematic random sampling. UCLA-R loneliness score was used. A person with a mean value of 42 and above was considered as lonely. After data were collected by self-administered questionnaire, Epi-Data was used for data entry and exported to SPSS version 20.1 for analysis. Variables with p-value of 0.05 and lower were treated as significant factors in multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Prevalence of loneliness was 49.5% (95% CI 44.6–54.4%). Year of study was significantly associated with loneliness [AOR = 2.47, 95% CI (1.65–3.70)]. First-year students were having 2.47 odds of loneliness as compared to second year and above students. Loneliness prevalence was higher in the current study. This must get the attention of higher education institutions, the government and all concerned stakeholders in the education sector to design strategy on preventing and treating loneliness.