Religiosity and feelings of loneliness in elderly

OBJECTIVE: To verify the association between religiosity and the feelings of loneliness in elderly widowers. METHODS: A group of 200 elderly windowers aged > 60 years attending the outpatient clinic of the Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology of PUCRS participated. The instruments used were the scale of the Ucla Loneliness Scale and Frequency of Religious Practices and Religiosity Scale of Intrinsic/Extrinsic. RESULTS: The results showed a high level of loneliness in the sample, with an average of 48.4%. For the estimative of the scale of solitude, the results indicated that 36.7% of the variations occurred in scale score of solitude can be explained by the incomes, the highest is the income the highest is the level of solitude. Still it was found significance in the correlation between loneliness and sex, for it came out that widowers demonstrate greater social satisfaction than widows. Most elderly presented tendency to intrinsic religiosity (Md = 25.5). Another significant relationship was found between religiosity and the age range of participants, the oldest the person is, the greatest is the tendency for the practice of intrinsic religiosity. Significant difference was found only in the relationship between the scale of loneliness and social religiosity scale. CONCLUSION: As a general overview it was found that income is a predictive factor for the feeling of loneliness and the age range is a predictive factor for the practice of intrinsic religiosity among elderly widows. Furthermore, the practice of social religiosity can decrease the feeling of loneliness in elderly widowers.