Differences in Subjective and Objective Social Isolation and Subjective Loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The health consequences of COVID-19 infection are greater for older people who are more likely to experience severe illness, hospitalisation, and death. Therefore, social distancing strategies were very important for older adults. However, in such a context older adults may find it particularly hard to maintain social connections because of lower access to and use of digital technologies, and because of the greater likelihood of needing to socially isolate in addition to social distancing. Older people may therefore have experienced a high level of social isolation and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could then have consequences for overall health and well-being. The ELSA COVID-19 Substudy provided data to allow to explore changes in the experiences of social isolation (captured with subject and objective measures) and loneliness during the pandemic in 4,709 older men and women living in England, and to examine differences in this in relation to age, gender, overall self-perceived health status, and wealth.
We found that both men and women experienced an increasing prevalence
of subjective social isolation and loneliness during the pandemic but only
men experienced higher objective social isolation. All age groups had higher subjective social isolation during 2020 but those aged 50-59 were most affected. Adults older than 70 experienced larger increases in objective social isolation in the second half of 2020 and those aged 50-59 and older than 80 were feeling lonelier during the pandemic. We found that respondents with poor self- reported health had a much higher risk of feeling socially isolated and lonely during the pandemic and those in the poorest wealth quintile had an increased prevalence of social isolation and loneliness during the second COVID-19 Wave (November/December) compared to pre-pandemic and first COVID-19 Wave (June/July) levels.
Additional research to explore how these changes in social isolation and loneliness can be linked with broader health and well-being outcomes is crucial to understand the wider impact that this pandemic has had to older people.