Invited discussant comments during the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Alone Together: Loneliness Research and Social Health Innovation in Lockdown and Beyond’

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Abstract

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has influenced people’s social relationships around the world in surprising ways. It has also underscored the importance of and accelerated innovation in solutions for social isolation and loneliness. This commentary offers takeaways from emerging research findings and a wide lens on the societal movement underway to create more socially connected communities.

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The trajectory of loneliness in response to COVID-19.

Martina Luchetti, Ji Hyun Lee, Damaris Aschwanden … (2020)

Social distancing and ‘stay-at-home’ orders are essential to contain the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), but there is concern that these measures will increase feelings of loneliness, particularly in vulnerable groups. The present study examined change in loneliness in response to the social restriction measures taken to control the coronavirus spread. A nation-wide sample of American adults ( N = 1,545; 45% women; age 18 to 98, M = 53.68, SD = 15.63) was assessed on three occasions: in late-January/early-February 2020 (before the outbreak), in late-March (during the President’s initial ‘15 Days to Slow the Spread’ campaign), and in late-April (during the ‘stay-at-home’ policies of most states). Contrary to expectations, there were no significant mean-level changes in loneliness across the three assessments ( d = .04, p > .05). In fact, respondents perceived increased support from others over the follow-up period ( d = .19, p < .01). Older adults reported less loneliness overall compared to younger age groups but had an increase in loneliness during the acute phase of the outbreak ( d = .14, p <.05). Their loneliness, however, leveled off after the issuance of stay-at-home orders. Individuals living alone and those with at least one chronic condition reported feeling lonelier at baseline but did not increase in loneliness during the implementation of social distancing measures. Despite some detrimental impact on vulnerable individuals, in the present sample, there was no large increase in loneliness but remarkable resilience in response to COVID-19.

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The social cure of social prescribing: a mixed-methods study on the benefits of social connectedness on quality and effectiveness of care provision

Blerina Kellezi, Juliet Ruth Helen Wakefield, Clifford Stevenson … (2019)

Objectives This study aimed to assess the degree to which the ‘social cure’ model of psychosocial health captures the understandings and experiences of healthcare staff and patients in a social prescribing (SP) pathway and the degree to which these psychosocial processes predict the effect of the pathway on healthcare usage. Design Mixed-methods: Study 1: semistructured interviews; study 2: longitudinal survey. Setting An English SP pathway delivered between 2017 and 2019. Participants Study 1: general practitioners (GPs) (n=7), healthcare providers (n=9) and service users (n=19). Study 2: 630 patients engaging with SP pathway at a 4-month follow-up after initial referral assessment. Intervention Chronically ill patients experiencing loneliness referred onto SP pathway and meeting with a health coach and/or link worker, with possible further referral to existing or newly created relevant third-sector groups. Main outcome measure Study 1: health providers and users’ qualitative perspectives on the experience of the pathway and social determinants of health. Study 2: patients’ primary care usage. Results Healthcare providers recognised the importance of social factors in determining patient well-being, and reason for presentation at primary care. They viewed SP as a potentially effective solution to such problems. Patients valued the different social relationships they created through the SP pathway, including those with link workers, groups and community. Group memberships quantitatively predicted primary care usage, and this was mediated by increases in community belonging and reduced loneliness. Conclusions Methodological triangulation offers robust conclusions that ‘social cure’ processes explain the efficacy of SP, which can reduce primary care usage through increasing social connectedness (group membership and community belonging) and reducing loneliness. Recommendations for integrating social cure processes into SP initiatives are discussed.

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Did Social Connection Decline During the First Wave of COVID-19?: The Role of Extraversion

Dunigan Folk, Karynna Okabe-Miyamoto, Elizabeth Dunn … (2020)

In two pre-registered studies, we tracked changes in individuals’ feelings of social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both studies capitalized on measures of social connection and well-being obtained prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by recruiting the same participants again in the midst of the pandemic’s upending effects. Study 1 included a sample of undergraduates from a Canadian university (N = 467), and Study 2 included community adults primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom (N = 336). Our results suggest that people experienced relatively little change in feelings of social connection in the face of the initial reshaping of their social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory analyses suggested that relatively extraverted individuals exhibited larger declines in social connection. However, after controlling for levels of social connection prior to the pandemic (as pre-registered), the negative effect of extraversion reversed (Study 1) or disappeared (Study 2).

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Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): UCL Open Environ

Journal ID (publisher-id): UCLOE

Title: UCL Open Environment

Abbreviated Title: UCL Open Environ

Publisher: UCL Press (UK )

ISSN (Electronic): 2632-0886

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 03 November 2022

Publication date (Electronic, collection): 2022

Volume: 4

Electronic Location Identifier: e004

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[1 ]Founder and Executive Director, Social Health Labs, www.socialhealthlabs.com

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*Corresponding author: E-mail: kasley@ 123456socialhealthlabs.com

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Kasley Killam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7840-3219

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DOI: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.100004

PMC ID: 10208344

SO-VID: 6c2ef4c6-a01e-4775-881c-336382456ece

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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

UCL Press journals including UCL Open Environment have now moved website.

You will now find the journal, all publications, reviews and submission information at https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ucloe

Invited discussant comments during the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Alone Together: Loneliness Research and Social Health Innovation in Lockdown and Beyond’

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Most cited references 14

The trajectory of loneliness in response to COVID-19.

The social cure of social prescribing: a mixed-methods study on the benefits of social connectedness on quality and effectiveness of care provision

Did Social Connection Decline During the First Wave of COVID-19?: The Role of Extraversion

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