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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2024
igaa057.2024
Abstracts
Session 5635 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
I’m Very Cautious About Who I Let Into My World: Social Vulnerability for People Living Alone With Dementia
de Medeiros Kate 1 Girling Laura 2 1 
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States
2 
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”601 601
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Living alone with Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) can have many risks including social vulnerability that leads to loneliness. This paper reports findings from 9 people living alone with ADRD who completed in-depth, face-to-face interviews as part of a larger, NIA-sponsored study. Narrative data were analyzed using ATLAS. ti. Thematic findings revealed that although participants received supports (e.g., financial, meal preparation) from others, they lacked opportunities to participate in meaningful engagements with people of their choice (e.g., a friend who lives too far away, a son who is busy). In addition to loneliness resulting from lack of control over their social networks, many also reported that personal changes (e.g., difficulties eating) made them hesitant to seek social engagements. Overall, this paper underscores the need for social programs that extend beyond health-related outcomes and instead speak to subjective wellbeing and social connectivity for this population.