Loneliness during a strict lockdown: Trajectories and predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 38,217 United Kingdom adults

There are increasing worries that lockdowns and ‘stay-at-home’ orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a rise in loneliness, which is recognised as a major public health concern. But profiles of loneliness during the pandemic and risk factors remain unclear. The current study aimed to exam...

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Veröffentlicht in:Social science & medicine (1982) Jg. 265; S. 113521
Hauptverfasser: Bu, Feifei, Steptoe, Andrew, Fancourt, Daisy
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2020
Pergamon Press Inc
Pergamon
Schlagworte:
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Age Factors
Aged
Classes
Clustering
Communicable Disease Control - statistics & numerical data
Coronavirus
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - psychology
Ethnicity
Female
Friendship
Humans
Lockdown
Loneliness
Loneliness - psychology
Longitudinal
Low income groups
Male
Mental health
Mental Health - statistics & numerical data
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Public health
Residence Characteristics
Risk factors
Rural areas
Rural communities
SARS-CoV-2
Sex Factors
Social factor
Social Support
Socioeconomic Factors
Trajectory
United Kingdom - epidemiology
Women
Young Adult
Young adults
United Kingdom
United Kingdom > UK
COVID-19
Lockdown
Longitudinal
Coronavirus
Mental health
Loneliness
Social factor
Trajectory
ISSN:0277-9536, 1873-5347, 1873-5347
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Zusammenfassung:There are increasing worries that lockdowns and ‘stay-at-home’ orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a rise in loneliness, which is recognised as a major public health concern. But profiles of loneliness during the pandemic and risk factors remain unclear. The current study aimed to examine if and how loneliness levels changed during the strict lockdown and to explore the clustering of loneliness growth trajectories. Data from 38,217 UK adults in the UCL COVID -19 Social Study (a panel study collecting data weekly during the pandemic) were analysed during the strict lockdown period in the UK (23/03/2020–10/05/2020). The sample was well-stratified and weighted to population proportions of gender, age, ethnicity, education and geographical location. Growth mixture modelling was used to identify the latent classes of loneliness growth trajectories and their predictors. Analyses revealed four classes, with the baseline loneliness level ranging from low to high. In the first a few weeks of lockdown, loneliness levels increased in the highest loneliness group, decreased in the lowest loneliness group, and stayed relatively constant in the middle two groups. Younger adults (OR = 2.17–6.81), women (OR = 1.59), people with low income (OR = 1.3), the economically inactive (OR = 1.3–2.04) and people with mental health conditions (OR = 5.32) were more likely to be in highest loneliness class relative to the lowest. Further, living with others or in a rural area, and having more close friends or greater social support were protective. Perceived levels of loneliness under strict lockdown measures due to COVID-19 were relatively stable in the UK, but for many people these levels were high with no signs of improvement. Results suggest that more efforts are needed to address loneliness. •Our analyses revealed four distinctive latent classes of loneliness trajectories.•During the seven weeks of strict lockdown, loneliness levels were relatively stable.•There is a slight increase in the highest loneliness class and decrease in the lowest class.•A range of demographic, health, and social factors were related to latent classes.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113521