ArticleJournal of Korean medical science2025
Potential Risk Factors for Lonely Death: A Nationwide Case-Control Study in Korea.
Article in Journal of Korean medical science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Comparison of health care utilisation and spending among National Health Insurance and Medical Aid beneficiaries in Korea.BMC health services research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLonely death, referred to the death of an individual at home alone and found after some time has elapsed, has emerged as a significant social issue in many countries. This study aimed to distinguish high-risk groups by comparing the characteristics of individuals who died of loneliness with those of the control group.
methodsThis case-control study was conducted using data from the Korea Crime Scene Investigation and National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) databases. We identified all lonely deaths that occurred in 2021 in Korea and sex- and age-matched controls were randomly selected from the NHIS database in a 1:3 ratio. Data on demographics, health conditions, and healthcare utilisation were analysed. Associations between lonely deaths and various factors were assessed using logistic regression.
resultsThis study included 3,122 lonely death cases and 9,493 controls. Individuals who experienced lonely death were more likely to be covered by medical aid, in the lowest income group, and have high (≥ 3) Charlson comorbidity index scores than the controls (30.8% vs. 4.0%, 54.5% vs. 19.2%, 14.5% vs. 8.6%, respectively). Furthermore, they exhibited a higher prevalence of chronic diseases (including diabetes and heart failure), mental health disorders (including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), and alcohol-related diseases, along with more frequent healthcare utilisation. Most of these factors exhibited statistical or borderline significance in adjusted logistic regression analyses.
conclusionLonely death is associated with low income, multi-morbidity, underlying diseases, and frequent healthcare utilisation. Targeted intervention strategies that focus on these potentially high-risk populations may help prevent lonely deaths.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.