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Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic
Loneliness is a major public health issue with renewed prominence due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social restrictions. Healthcare workers (HCWs) may be at heightened risk, but research is lacking. We measured the prevalence of loneliness among HCWs during the pandemic in 2020 and examine...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9044694/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35502333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100050 |
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author | Stubbs, Joanne M. Achat, Helen M. |
author_facet | Stubbs, Joanne M. Achat, Helen M. |
author_sort | Stubbs, Joanne M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Loneliness is a major public health issue with renewed prominence due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social restrictions. Healthcare workers (HCWs) may be at heightened risk, but research is lacking. We measured the prevalence of loneliness among HCWs during the pandemic in 2020 and examined pre-pandemic predictors and pandemic experiences associated with loneliness. HCWs at a designated COVID-19 hospital in Sydney, Australia completed an online survey examining health and well-being before and during the pandemic and changes to work, family and social experiences. Loneliness had negatively affected the well-being of 129 (39%) respondents (n = 330). Pre-pandemic factors predicting loneliness were younger age (<30years compared to ≥50years), having ever been told you had a mental health problem and living alone. These became non-significant when pandemic-related factors were added to the regression. Less contact with family and friends, increased conflict at home, and living alone or with family but not a partner, increased the odds of loneliness, while a sense of camaraderie with colleagues had the opposite effect. Psychological distress and poor mental health during the pandemic were also positively associated with loneliness. Efforts to promote congenial social contacts may be effective in averting loneliness among HCWs. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9044694 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90446942022-04-28 Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic Stubbs, Joanne M. Achat, Helen M. Psychiatry Res Commun Article Loneliness is a major public health issue with renewed prominence due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social restrictions. Healthcare workers (HCWs) may be at heightened risk, but research is lacking. We measured the prevalence of loneliness among HCWs during the pandemic in 2020 and examined pre-pandemic predictors and pandemic experiences associated with loneliness. HCWs at a designated COVID-19 hospital in Sydney, Australia completed an online survey examining health and well-being before and during the pandemic and changes to work, family and social experiences. Loneliness had negatively affected the well-being of 129 (39%) respondents (n = 330). Pre-pandemic factors predicting loneliness were younger age (<30years compared to ≥50years), having ever been told you had a mental health problem and living alone. These became non-significant when pandemic-related factors were added to the regression. Less contact with family and friends, increased conflict at home, and living alone or with family but not a partner, increased the odds of loneliness, while a sense of camaraderie with colleagues had the opposite effect. Psychological distress and poor mental health during the pandemic were also positively associated with loneliness. Efforts to promote congenial social contacts may be effective in averting loneliness among HCWs. The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2022-06 2022-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9044694/ /pubmed/35502333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100050 Text en © 2022 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Article Stubbs, Joanne M. Achat, Helen M. Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | Are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? The role of social relationships and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | are healthcare workers particularly vulnerable to loneliness? the role of social relationships and mental well-being during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9044694/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35502333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100050 |
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