WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Promotion, Prevention and Policy, Mental Health unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Syst Rev. 2019 Jun 7;8(1):134. doi: 10.1186/s13643-019-1057-x.
Living alone has become more common in today's societies. Despite the high number of the population living alone, research directed towards the mental wellbeing issues related to living alone has been limited. This systematic literature review aimed to assess the association between living alone and positive mental health.
We conducted searches in Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and other complementary databases from January 1998 to May 2019. Randomised trials and observational studies investigating adults over 18 years of age and living alone (defined as living in a single household or a household size of one person) were eligible. The primary outcome was positive mental health, defined as comprising both hedonic and eudaimonic elements of mental wellbeing, and it was measured with the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and/or theWHO-5 Index. Two reviewers independently screened and selected data; one reviewer extracted data, and the second checked the extracted data. A narrative synthesis described the quality and content of the evidence. Included studies were appraised using relevant Joanna Briggs Institute checklist.
A total of 4 cross-sectional studies (22,591 adult participants) were included after screening of 341 titles and abstracts and 46 full-text articles. These studies were conducted in Europe and were published between 2014 and 2017. The studies differed in their measurements of positive mental health (WHO-5 Well-Being Index, 3 studies; WEMWBS, 1 study), sources of data (1 regional, 1 national, and 2 European-level studies), and study populations (regional study, adults over 65 years of age; national-level study, mental health nurses over 21 years of age; European-level studies, employees between 15 and 65 years of age and adults over 18 years of age). A potential association between living alone and low positive mental health was found in three out of the four studies. Our findings were limited as the number of included studies was low and the quality of evidence varied across studies.
This review allows a limited look at the association between living alone and positive mental health. Because the number of included studies was low and the quality of evidence varied across studies, further research is warranted.
在当今社会，独居变得越来越普遍。尽管独居人口众多，但针对独居相关心理健康问题的研究却很有限。本系统文献综述旨在评估独居与积极心理健康之间的关系。
我们检索了 Medline、Web of Science、Cochrane Library、CINAHL、PsycINFO 和其他补充数据库，检索时间为 1998 年 1 月至 2019 年 5 月。纳入的研究为针对 18 岁以上成年人的随机试验和观察性研究，这些成年人独居（定义为居住在一个家庭或一个人的家庭规模）。主要结局是积极的心理健康，包括幸福感和精神幸福感的两个方面，用 Warwick-Edinburgh 心理健康量表和/或 WHO-5 指数来衡量。两名审查员独立筛选和选择数据；一名审查员提取数据，第二名审查员检查提取的数据。叙述性综述描述了证据的质量和内容。使用相关的 Joanna Briggs 研究所清单评估纳入的研究。
经过筛选 341 篇标题和摘要以及 46 篇全文文章后，共纳入 4 项横断面研究（22591 名成年参与者）。这些研究在欧洲进行，发表于 2014 年至 2017 年之间。这些研究在积极心理健康的测量（WHO-5 幸福感指数，3 项研究；WEMWBS，1 项研究）、数据来源（1 项区域性、1 项全国性和 2 项欧洲水平的研究）和研究人群（区域性研究，65 岁以上成年人；全国性研究，21 岁以上的心理健康护士；欧洲水平的研究，15 至 65 岁的员工和 18 岁以上的成年人）方面存在差异。四项研究中有三项发现独居与积极心理健康之间存在潜在关联。由于纳入研究的数量较少，且研究间证据质量存在差异，我们的研究结果受到限制。
本综述允许对独居与积极心理健康之间的关系进行有限的观察。由于纳入研究的数量较少，且研究间证据质量存在差异，因此需要进一步研究。
