Abstract

Demographic, health, social, and environmental factors are known to influence the experience of loneliness among immigrant older adults. Identifying the most influential factors is an essential step toward developing interventions to manage and/or prevent loneliness, but to date no studies have investigated the association between loneliness and all these factors taken together. This study examined the simultaneous effects of demographic, health, social, and environmental factors on loneliness among Arabic-speaking (Arab), Mandarin-speaking (East Asian), and Punjabi-speaking (South Asian) immigrant older adults in Canada. A cross-sectional design was used. Older (60+ years) immigrants were recruited from nine Canadian cities. Quota sampling ensured adequate representation of the type and size of the immigrant communities residing across the cities. In total, 476 Arabic-, Mandarin-, and Punjabi-speaking immigrant older adults completed a questionnaire with validated measures of loneliness and associated factors. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the most influential (statistically and clinically relevant) factors. Fifteen demographic, health, social, and environmental factors were associated with loneliness. Of these, Arab ethnicity, depression, availability of social support, and involvement with the respective ethnic community demonstrated small-to-moderate positive relationships with loneliness; depression was a risk factor. These factors can be mapped on to an ecosystemic framework that captures the interdependence between an individual’s experiences of loneliness and family- (micro), community- (meso), and societal- (macro) level factors. The most influential factors may be managed using evidence-based, multi-level interventions. However, their acceptability to Arab, East Asian, and South Asian immigrant older adults must be examined prior to mobilizing these interventions.