Loneliness and Social Engagement in Older Adults Based in Lombardy during the COVID-19 Lockdown: The Long-Term Effects of a Course on Social Networking Sites Use

Abstract

Older adults are less familiar with communication technology, which became essential to maintain social contacts during the COVID-19 lockdown. The present study aimed at exploring how older adults, previously trained for Social Networking Sites (SNSs) use, experienced the lockdown period. In the first two weeks of May 2020, telephone surveys were conducted with individuals aged 81–85 years and resident in Abbiategrasso (Milan), who previously participated in a study aimed at evaluating the impact of SNSs use on loneliness in old age (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04242628). We collected information on SNSs use, self-perceived loneliness, and social engagement with family and friends. Interviewed participants were stratified as trained (N = 60) and untrained (N = 70) for SNSs use, based on their attendance to group courses held the previous year as part of the main experimental study. The groups were comparable for sociodemographics and clinical features. Participants trained for SNSs use reported significantly higher usage of SNSs and reduced feeling of being left out. Compared to pre-lockdown levels, individuals trained for SNSs use showed a lighter reduction in social contacts. These findings support the utility of training older adults for SNSs use in order to improve their social inclusion, even in extreme conditions of self-isolation and perceived vulnerability.

Loneliness and Its Associated Factors Nine Months after the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-National Study

“…In this situation, social media have become more important for maintaining social contacts [ 27 ]. A clinical trial that trained older adults to use social networking sites found that those who had participated in the training were more likely to use social networking and reported reduced feelings of being left out [ 41 ]. Thus, public health strategies to improve social media and digital communication literacy for older adults in the community may be recommended to reduce social loneliness in the older population.…”

Social support, perceived risk and the likelihood of COVID-19 testing and vaccination: cross-sectional data from the United Kingdom

“…Study 2 explores the effects of neighborhood identification. Since previous research has shown that neighborhood identification is positively associated with strength of social network (Moyano-Díaz & Mendoza-Llanos, 2021 ), which, in turn, is negatively associated with loneliness (Rolandi et al, 2020 ), these two aspects of social support are included in Study 2.…”

An Agile Digital Platform to Support Population Health—A Case Study of a Digital Platform to Support Patients with Delirium Using IoT, NLP, and AI

“…As seen during the COVID-19 health emergency, these clients are at a greater risk for infection and mortality [ 49 ], and their self-isolation for safety led to psychological and social challenges [ 50 , 51 ]. Therefore, innovative ways to deliver care to such populations has become critical during the COVID-19 lockdowns [ 52 ], including the use of a mix of digital and non-digital services (e.g., telephone, local community workers, etc.) to maintain social connections considered essential [ 53 ] despite the technology barriers [ 54 , 55 ].…”