Loneliness and mental health at the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in England

The current researchers carried out a large online survey on 18 March 2020 and unintentionally provided a 'snap shot' of how the British population was responding in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between loneliness and mental health at the early stages of the global crisis. This cross-sectional study was carried out using Prolific, an online participant recruitment platform that allowed 1608 responses in just 2 hr. Participants completed measures of Personal Well-being, Psychological Distress, Flourishing and Loneliness. Numerous associations between loneliness and mental health were found. A multiple regression found that 43% of the variance in loneliness can be accounted for by age, psychological distress and flourishing. Responses were also categorised into three groups: the non-lonely (n = 311), averagely lonely (n = 1054) and the severely lonely (n = 243), with analysis indicating that poorer well-being was associated with increased loneliness. Due to the cross sectional nature of this research, determining the direction of causality is not possible. It remains uncertain whether increased loneliness negatively impacted on mental health, whether poor mental health lead to increased loneliness, or both in fact. Current findings suggest that severely lonely individuals may be particularly vulnerable to psychological distress and that individuals with poor mental health may be especially prone to loneliness. Individuals experiencing loneliness and/or poor mental health will almost certainly need additional support during and beyond the pandemic.

Automated summary

The research found a close relationship between loneliness and mental health, with those experiencing severe loneliness being more prone to psychological distress, and those with poor mental health more likely to feel lonely. During the early stages of the global crisis, individuals experiencing loneliness and/or poor mental health are likely to require additional support.