Covid pandemic led to rise in loneliness around the world, study finds

Loneliness felt during the coronavirus pandemic could have a long-lasting effect on the mental and physical health of people around the world, according to a new study.

Researchers sought to find out whether Covid lockdowns, social distancing, and the widespread switch from working on-site to working from home have led to increased loneliness globally.

Previous studies have found that social isolation does not always lead to loneliness, and others have found weak correlations between the two.

This is because a person can feel connected to others while having fewer social interactions compared to a person who feels the need for deeper relationships while surrounded by many people.

But researchers in Germany recently found that there is a link between the pandemic and increased loneliness, and that this could increase the risks of premature death and the decline of mental and physical health.

The researchers reviewed 34 studies from four continents – mainly in North America and Europe – that had a combined number of participants of more than 200,000.

The long-term studies measured the participants’ levels of loneliness before the pandemic as well as during the pandemic.

The researchers said they found a “small but significant increase” in loneliness during the pandemic, of about 5 per cent on average, and that not all groups of people felt more lonely at that time.

More studies are needed to strengthen the evidence base and ascertain whether some groups of people – such as the elderly and students – were at higher risk of feeling the pain of loneliness, researchers also said.

Mareike Ernst PhD, of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, said: “Given the small effect sizes, dire warnings about a ‘loneliness pandemic’ may be overblown.

“However, as loneliness constitutes a risk for premature mortality and mental and physical health, it should be closely monitored.

“We think that loneliness should be made a priority in large-scale research projects aimed at investigating the health outcomes of the pandemic.”

Money is one of the variable factors yet to be explored, as most of the studies were carried out in high and upper-middle-income countries, the researchers also said.

The research has been published by the American Psychological Association in the American Psychologist journal.