Entringer Theresa M, Stacherl Barbara
Sozio-oekonomisches Panel (SOEP), Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e. V. (DIW Berlin), Mohrenstraße 58, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland.
Institut für Psychologie, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Deutschland.
Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2024 Oct;67(10):1103-1112. doi: 10.1007/s00103-024-03937-y. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
Loneliness is widespread and has negative health consequences. The present study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) how many people in Germany are highly lonely, (2) how has loneliness changed in Germany over time-in particular with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) how is loneliness distributed regionally in Germany today?
The present study uses data from the 2013, 2017, and 2021 waves of the Socio-Economic Panel, a population representative panel study from Germany. Based on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale, we estimate prevalences for high loneliness for different risk groups in Germany. Further, using multi-level models, we estimate the changes in loneliness from 2013 to 2021. Finally, we generate regional maps to display the relative regional distribution of loneliness in Germany over the three assessment waves.
The results show that around 2% of all people living in Germany are highly lonely, and this proportion has not changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, mean overall loneliness in Germany increased in the last decade, particularly during the pandemic. Additionally, the regional distribution of loneliness also changed. While eastern Germany was particularly affected by loneliness in 2013, western Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatine, and Hesse were the most affected regions during the pandemic.
Reasons for these changes could be structural changes in the German society over the past 10 years or the COVID-19 pandemic and the different measures implemented to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, since the latest representative data on loneliness stems from 2021, further data collection is urgently needed to depict the current state of loneliness in Germany.
孤独现象普遍存在，且会对健康产生负面影响。本研究旨在回答以下问题：（1）德国有多少人极度孤独；（2）德国的孤独感随时间如何变化，特别是在新冠疫情期间；（3）如今德国孤独感在地区上是如何分布的？
本研究使用了德国社会经济面板2013年、2017年和2021年的数据，这是一项具有人口代表性的面板研究。基于加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）孤独量表，我们估计了德国不同风险群体中高度孤独的患病率。此外，我们使用多层次模型估计了2013年至2021年孤独感的变化。最后，我们绘制了区域地图，以展示德国在三次评估浪潮中孤独感的相对区域分布。
结果显示，居住在德国的所有人中约有2%极度孤独，这一比例在新冠疫情期间没有变化。然而，德国的总体孤独感在过去十年中有所增加，尤其是在疫情期间。此外，孤独感的区域分布也发生了变化。2013年，德国东部受孤独感影响尤为严重，而在疫情期间，下萨克森州西部、莱茵兰-普法尔茨州和黑森州受影响最为严重。
这些变化的原因可能是过去十年德国社会的结构变化、新冠疫情以及为抗击新冠病毒传播而采取的不同措施。然而，由于关于孤独感的最新代表性数据来自2021年，迫切需要进一步收集数据以描绘德国当前的孤独状况。
