Older Adults Less Lonely After Moving Into Senior Living, New Survey Shows

Senior living communities can have an outsized impact on whether older adults feel lonely, according to a survey of new senior living residents from U.S. News & World Report.

More than two-thirds of the 360 older adults who participated in the survey said they felt lonely a majority of the time prior to moving into a senior living community. But fewer than half of residents, 42%, reported feeling lonely a majority of the time after moving into a senior living community.

Sixty-one percent of older adults said their feelings of loneliness or isolation improved after moving into a community, while 65% said it was easy to meet other older adults since making a move into a community. Another 85% said they had made friends since moving in, according to the survey.

“Senior living in our world is an opportunity for that person who might be now living alone, depending on their family, to entertain them and take them places and be that support,” Volante Senior Living Vice President of Health and Wellness Susan McCormick-Agee said in a news release announcing the findings. “They are now able to come into our setting and have people that are just like them.”

In recent years, senior living operators have worked to renovate or design communities with wellness and lifestyle amenities in mind, while also enhancing levels of care in an effort to improve health outcomes of their residents. Some operators have also crafted or grown intergenerational living options to spur engagement between residents and college students while offering unique engagement and programming opportunities.

The report also found that since moving into a community, older adults participate in activities they enjoy 19% more often and engage in physical activity more often 20% of the time and find meaning or purpose in their lives 21% more often compared to older adults who do not live in a community.

Over one third of older adults who responded to the U.S. News survey said they felt their health improved since moving into a senior living community, due to improvements in care coordination and things like medication management, combined with occupational or physical therapy.

Approximately two-thirds of older adults surveyed (65%) said their feelings of loneliness and isolation contributed to a decline in their health before moving into a community.

“What we know is critical in achieving that goal is social connections,” says Markwood. “Our social connections are critical to valuing the talent, the knowledge, the contributions that people have across their lifespan,” USAging CEO Sandy Markwood said in the release of findings.

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