ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1999
Someone to talk to? The role of loneliness as a factor in the frequency of GP consultations.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Older Adults' Social Relationships and Health Care Utilization: A Systematic Review.American journal of public health · 2018Pooled it
- Health risk appraisal in older people 2: the implications for clinicians and commissioners of social isolation risk in older people.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2007Trial
- Associations of social isolation and loneliness with healthcare utilization among older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Innovation in aging · 2026Review
- Factors associated with quality of life and the use of public healthcare and social services in older adults experiencing loneliness.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- The impact of loneliness and social relationship dissatisfaction on clinical and functional outcomes in Dutch mental health service users.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Social relations and contact with general practitioner in a middle-aged Danish population: a prospective register- and survey-based cohort study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Loneliness, sadness, and feelings of social disconnection in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2022Article
- Examining the association between loneliness and emergency department visits using Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (CLSA) data: a retrospective cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2022Article
- Social Isolation, Loneliness and Generalized Anxiety: Implications and Associations during the COVID-19 Quarantine.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Modelling the Economic Impact of Reducing Loneliness in Community Dwelling Older People in England.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Loneliness and Healthcare Use in Older Adults: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Cohort in Northern Ireland-A Cross-Sectional Replication Study.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Loneliness: an incommunicable disease?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Article
- The economic costs of loneliness: a review of cost-of-illness and economic evaluation studies.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2020Review
- Trajectory of Psychosocial Measures amongst Informal Caregivers: Case-Controlled Study of 1375 Informal Caregivers from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Early Cognitive Decline and its Impact on Spouse's Loneliness.Research in human development · 2020Article
- Editorial: Loneliness in Old Age: An unaddressed Health Problem.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2020Article
- Article
- Loneliness correlates and associations with health variables in the general population in Indonesia.International journal of mental health systems · 2019Article
- Primary care chaplaincy: an intervention for complex presentation.Primary health care research & development · 2018Article
- Loneliness and Health Service Utilization among the Rural Elderly in Shandong, China: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere are many reasons why people frequently consult their general practitioner (GP). Although loneliness is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting well-being for elderly people, it has rarely been addressed as a predictor of frequency of consultation.
aimTo examine whether loneliness is associated with rates of GP consultations (home and surgery visits).
methodAnalysis of data collected in face-to-face interviews at the second wave of a longitudinal health survey of two adult age cohorts living in four socially contrasting urban localities in Glasgow City. There were a total of 691 subjects: 142 males and 176 females aged 40 years at interview; and 167 males and 206 females aged 60 years at interview. Frequency of reported GP consultations in the past 12 months at home or in the surgery was examined.
resultsAfter controlling for sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables and health, loneliness was significantly associated with frequency of consultation at the surgery but not with the frequency of home visits.
conclusionLoneliness may still be underestimated as a factor related independently to frequency of consultations with a GP at the surgery.
Indexed as
Identifiers
10736886PMC1313421What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.