“Loneliness is a sad disease”: oldest old adults’ empirical definition of loneliness and social isolation from a mixed-method study in Northern Italy by Sara Santini, Mauro Colombo, Antonio Guaita, Paolo Fabbietti, Georgia Casanova

“…The two concepts are often perceived by participants as distinct, but they are strongly interconnected so that they can be used interchangeably by older Italian people. The two main themes identified by the analysis are loneliness as “death” and social isolation as “guilt”. …”
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