Torres Juliana Lustosa, Braga Luciana de Souza, Moreira Bruno de Souza, Sabino Castro Camila Menezes, Vaz Camila Teixeira, Andrade Amanda Cristina de Souza, Bof Andrade Fabíola, Lima-Costa Maria Fernanda, Caiaffa Waleska Teixeira
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Graduate Program in Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Observatory for Urban Health in Belo Horizonte, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Aging Ment Health. 2022 May;26(5):898-904. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2021.1913479. Epub 2021 May 10.
This study aimed at estimating the pre-pandemic and pandemic prevalence of loneliness and investigating the association of loneliness with social disconnectedness during social distancing strategies in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic period. We used data from the ELSI COVID-19 initiative with participants from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), which comprised 4,431 participants aged 50 years and over. Loneliness (hardly ever/some of the time/often) was assessed by the question "In the past 30 days, how often did you feel alone/lonely?". Social disconnectedness included information on social contacts through virtual talking (i.e. telephone, Skype, WhatsApp, or social media) and outside-home meetings with people living in another household. Covariates included sociodemographic and health related characteristics. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence interval (CI). The overall prevalence of loneliness during the pandemic was 23.9% (95% CI 20.7-27.5); lower than in the pre-pandemic period (32.8%; 95% CI 28.6-37.4). In the pandemic period, 20.1% (95% CI 16.9-23.6) reported some of the time feeling lonely and 3.9% (95% CI 3.1-4.8) reported often feeling lonely. In the fully adjusted model, virtual talking disconnectedness (OR=1.67; 95% CI 1.09-2.56) was positively associated with some of the time feeling lonely and outside-home disconnectedness (OR=0.33; 95% CI 0.18-0.60) was negatively associated with often feeling lonely. Individuals with virtual talking disconnectedness and without outside-home disconnectedness are at higher risk of loneliness during the time of COVID-19 pandemic. Stimulating virtual talking connectedness might have the potential to diminish loneliness despite steep outside-home disconnectedness.
本研究旨在估计疫情前和疫情期间孤独感的患病率，并调查在新冠疫情期间社会 distancing 策略实施过程中孤独感与社会隔离之间的关联。我们使用了来自 ELSI COVID-19 倡议的数据，参与者来自巴西老龄化纵向研究（ELSI-巴西），其中包括 4431 名 50 岁及以上的参与者。孤独感（几乎从不/有时/经常）通过“在过去 30 天里，你多久会感到孤独？”这一问题进行评估。社会隔离包括通过虚拟交谈（即电话、Skype、WhatsApp 或社交媒体）以及与住在另一个家庭的人进行户外会面的社交联系信息。协变量包括社会人口学和健康相关特征。使用多项逻辑回归模型来估计优势比（OR）及其 95%置信区间（CI）。疫情期间孤独感的总体患病率为 23.9%（95%CI 20.7 - 27.5）；低于疫情前时期（32.8%；95%CI 28.6 - 37.4）。在疫情期间，20.1%（95%CI 16.9 - 23.6）报告有时感到孤独，3.9%（95%CI 3.1 - 4.8）报告经常感到孤独。在完全调整模型中，虚拟交谈隔离（OR = 1.67；95%CI 1.09 - 2.56）与有时感到孤独呈正相关，户外隔离（OR = 0.33；95%CI 0.18 - 0.60）与经常感到孤独呈负相关。在新冠疫情期间，有虚拟交谈隔离且无户外隔离的个体孤独风险更高。尽管户外隔离严重，但促进虚拟交谈联系可能有减少孤独感的潜力。
