Loneliness and mental health over time
About 2 mins
The significant increase in poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be explained by changes in loneliness
This chart shows the proportion of people experiencing severe psychological distress and people who often feel lonely over time.
- The proportion of people experiencing severe psychological distress rose from 7% in 2019 to 9% in 2020 and 10% in 2021 before declining to 9% again in 2022.
- There was no significant increase in the proportion of people who often felt lonely – although the proportion did increase from 12% in 2019 to 13% in 2021 and 2022, this change is not statistically significant.
The relationship between loneliness and mental health is bi-directional – feelings of loneliness can lead to poor mental health, as well as mental health conditions fostering feelings of loneliness.
Perhaps surprisingly, this analysis suggests that the worsening mental health observed during the COVID–19 pandemic was not driven by more people feeling lonely. However, further analysis shows that loneliness was a risk factor in experiencing poorer mental health: those who often felt lonely before the pandemic were more likely to experience severe psychological distress during the pandemic.
We also know that factors other than loneliness contributed to worsening mental health outcomes during the pandemic: eg job and financial losses, housing insecurity and quality, reduced access to mental health services.
- Psychological distress is measured using the GHQ-12 assessment tool – a recognised indication of a person’s mental health. It includes 12 questions relating to mood dysfunction, social dysfunction and loss of confidence. Each question has a four-point response scale. Responses are added up to give an overall distress score – people with a score of 20 or higher are classified as experiencing severe psychological distress.
- People are classified as often feeling lonely via both direct and indirect reports of loneliness.
- The direct measure asks people ‘How often do you feel lonely?’. Response options are ‘Often’, ‘Some of the time’ and ‘Hardly ever or never’. People responding ‘Often’ are classified as often feeling lonely.
- The indirect measure is established from three individual questions: ‘How often do you feel isolated from others?’; ‘How often do you feel left out?’; and ‘How often do you feel you lack companionship?’. Response options for all three questions are scored as 3 (‘Often’), 2 (‘Some of the time’) or 1 (‘Hardly ever or never’). If the sum of all three scores is greater than 7, the respondent is classified as often feeling lonely.
- We have combined the direct and indirect measures of loneliness, so people are classified as often feeling lonely if they respond as such in either the direct measure, the indirect measure, or both.
Source: Health Foundation analysis of University of Essex – Institute for Social and Economic Research, Understanding Society, UK, 2018–22
