Loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of physical distancing risk collateral damage such as increased loneliness. Older adults have been identified as being at higher risk of poor outcomes if infected and in many countries have been subjected to greater restrictions on physical contacts with others. Most research so far points towards an increase in loneliness during the pandemic. However, there has been a lack of prospective studies based on representative samples of older adults, with the oldest old, older adults with low or no Internet usage, and those in poor health currently underrepresented. Despite the significance of cultural norms for individuals’ standards for social relations and, thus, the experience of loneliness, there has been a lack of comparative research on loneliness in older adults during the pandemic. Reviews have found little evidence for what interventions and what elements of interventions are effective in reducing loneliness. There is potential for social relations to be maintained via technology-based solutions, although there is a risk of excluding older adults with limited resources who are both least likely to use technology and most vulnerable to loneliness. Furthermore, remote social contacts cannot fully compensate for the loss of physical contacts. Where stay-at-home orders are not imposed, supporting neighbourliness and the community use of accessible open spaces are other options. Finally, policy responses to the pandemic need to be more nuanced and non-ageist in order to avoid unnecessary increases in loneliness in older adults.

Keywords:

• Loneliness
• COVID-19
• physical distance
• social isolation
• policy
• psychological and social aspects
• social support
• environmental factors/housing/rural–urban factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to thank Kevin J. McKee at Dalarna University and Johan Fritzell and the social gerontology group at the Aging Research Center for valuable comments on a draft of this editorial, and the Nordic Council of Ministers (grant no. 18291) and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant no. 2017-00668) for supporting my research on loneliness and social exclusion.