Elderly people's quality of life in rural areas of Turkey and its relationship with loneliness and sociodemographic characteristics.

Remarkably, a sense of loneliness in the elderly was determined to be the most important factor for predicting their QOL. Loneliness should be considered in attempts to improve QOL for the elderly, interventions to reduce loneliness should specifically target this group, and activities with the potential to increase QOL should be encouraged.