Abstract
This study addresses loneliness and social isolation among older adults as a public policy challenge. National and international political actors promote public policy interventions to cope with them. However, prospects of public policy-shaping against loneliness and social isolation raise challenges associated with a double uncertainty concerning (i) newness and (ii) scarcity of reference models. By modelling four intervention scenarios of public health policy, the paper proposes an evaluation model of interventions useful for further policy-shaping. A systematic search based on PubMed provides data from 172 studies between 2005 and 2022 on public health policy interventions’ effectiveness in reducing loneliness and social isolation among older adults is used. The independent variable distinguishes four intervention scenarios depending on the (i) origin (individual/societal) and (ii) scope (individual/societal) of cases of loneliness and social isolation addressed by public health policy interventions. The dependent dichotomous variable codifies the assessment of the effectiveness of the above interventions. Binomial logistic regression tests the hypothesis for which interventions’ scenarios affect the effectiveness of policy interventions. Different scenarios determine different challenges for policy-shaping. Implications Preliminary results suggest that the four scenarios (i. individual-individual; ii. individual-societal; iii. societal-individual; iv. societal-societal) determine different outcomes in the assessment of interventions’ effectiveness. Notably, the shift from i. to iv. shows an increase in the challenge for public policy-shaping against loneliness and social isolation among older adults. These accounts provide political actors with enhanced awareness of the challenges for further policy-shaping.
Presenters
Elia R.G. PusterlaPostdoctoral Researcher, Centre of Competence on Ageing (CCA), University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Ticino (it), Switzerland
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Public Policy and Public Perspectives on Aging
KEYWORDS
Public Policy; Health Policy; Interventions; Loneliness; Social Isolation; Older Adults
