Interplay between social isolation and loneliness and chronic systemic inflammation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: Results from U-CORONA study

In the face of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, billions of people were forced to stay at home due to the implementation of social distancing and lockdown policies. As a result, individuals lost their social relationships, leading to social isolation and loneliness. Both social isolation and loneliness are major risk factors for poor physical and mental health status through enhanced chronic inflammation; however, there might be an interplay between social isolation and loneliness on the association with chronic inflammation. We aimed to clarify the link between social relationships and inflammation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by distinguishing whether social isolation only, loneliness only, or both were associated with chronic inflammation markers among community-dwelling adults. The data of 624 people (aged 18–92 years, mean 51.4) from the Utsunomiya COVID-19 seROprevalence Neighborhood Association (U-CORONA) study, which targeted randomly sampled households in Utsunomiya city, Japan, were analyzed. Social isolation was assessed as a structural social network by asking the number of social roles they have on a daily basis. Loneliness was measured with the UCLA loneliness scale. As chronic inflammation biomarkers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the concentration of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. Generalized estimating equations method was employed to take into account the correlations within households. Isolated-Lonely condition (i.e., being both socially isolated and feeling lonely) was associated with higher NLR among men (B = 0.141, 95%CI = −0.01 to 0.29). Interestingly, Nonisolated-Lonely condition (i.e., not socially isolated but feeling lonely) was associated with lower CRP among women (B = −0.462, 95%CI = −0.82 to −0.10) and among the working-age population (B = −0.495, 95%CI = −0.76 to −0.23). In conclusion, being both socially isolated and feeling lonely was associated with chronic inflammation. Assessing both social isolation and loneliness is critical for proper interventions to mitigate the impact of poor social relationships on health, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.