Loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and measures aimed at its mitigation, such as physical distancing, have been discussed as risk factors for loneliness, which increases the risk of premature mortality and mental and physical health conditions. To ascertain whether loneliness has increased since the start of the pandemic, this study aimed to narratively and statistically synthesize relevant high-quality primary studies. This systematic review with meta-analysis was registered at PROSPERO (ID CRD42021246771). Searched databases were PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library/Central Register of Controlled Trials/EMBASE/CINAHL, Web of Science, the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 database, supplemented by Google Scholar and citation searching (cutoff date of the systematic search December 5, 2021).

Individual and Organizational Factors in Coping With COVID-19 in Soldier Students

“…May), COVID-19 associated infections [deaths] reached 3,638,504 [87,135], and 32,961,750 people (about 39.29% of the German population) received at least one vaccination (Dong et al, 2020). 1 This extraordinary situation showed an impact on various psychological health outcomes, including increased loneliness (i.e., painful subjective feelings of isolation and with this an indicator of social well-being; Ellis et al, 2020;Huxhold and Tesch-Römer, 2021;Ernst et al, 2022), decreased life satisfaction (i.e., the cognitive evaluation of one's own subjective well-being; Zacher and Rudolph, 2021b), and increased psychological distress with anxiety and depressive symptoms (Arslan et al, 2021; for an overview see Hossain et al, 2020). While these findings indicate substantial COVID-19-related psychological distress, researchers also reported heterogeneous results (Ernst et al, 2022) or resilience (Luchetti et al, 2020), motivating research on potential vulnerability and protective factors.…”

Assessment of Loneliness During the Pandemic: Comparing Various Short Forms of the UCLA Loneliness Scale in South Africa Using Classical Test Theory and Mokken Analysis

“…It consists of 20 items with a fourpoint scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 4 (Often). The estimates of internal consistency range from 0.88-0.93, as found in various studies [10][11][12][13][14][21][22][23][24][25]. Two South African studies reported acceptable reliability (0.81 and 0.92) for the UCLA-20 when used with student samples [46,47].…”

“…The importance of conducting studies on loneliness has been highlighted by pre-pandemic studies, where loneliness was found to be associated with adverse mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety, and high mortality [11]. Similar results were found during the pandemic.…”

“…A study also found a decrease in the level of loneliness by the first year of the pandemic [11]. This might be due to several factors, including a decrease in compliance with social distancing and quarantine measures and an increase in the use of technology to connect with others [11,12]. Some studies focused on identifying sub-groups of the population that might be more susceptible to loneliness, including adolescents [8], the elderly [13], and university students [14], as well as the correlates of loneliness.…”

“…Others have reported an increase in the prevalence of loneliness in the general population at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, with especially high rates among people under quarantine [10]. A study also found a decrease in the level of loneliness by the first year of the pandemic [11]. This might be due to several factors, including a decrease in compliance with social distancing and quarantine measures and an increase in the use of technology to connect with others [11,12].…”