Relationships of leisure social support and flow with loneliness among nursing home residents during the COVID-19 pandemic: An age-based moderating model.
Liang-Chih Chang, John Dattilo, Pei-Chun Hsieh and 1 others
PMID 34649103WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing home residents with more leisure social support and more flow reported less loneliness.
Flow was linked to lower loneliness at younger ages, but not at older ages.
Key findings
01Among 235 nursing home residents, higher leisure social support and higher flow were associated with lower loneliness.
02Flow was associated with lower loneliness more strongly than leisure social support (flow β = -.33; leisure social support β = -.18).
03The negative association between flow and loneliness was significant for younger ages but not for older ages.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was correlational, so it cannot show that leisure social support or flow cause reduced loneliness. Residents came from four purposively selected rural nursing homes, so results may not apply to other nursing homes or residents. Only residents able to take part in active recreation were included, so findings may not apply to residents who take part only in passive activities. The model did not include residents' risk perceptions during COVID-19, which may also relate to loneliness.
Declared interests
Funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that helping residents experience flow will reduce their loneliness. The study was cross-sectional and found associations only. It also found that the flow-loneliness link was not significant for older residents.