Loneliness and associated factors among older adults during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain.

Considering the health outcomes of loneliness, it is important to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for older adults to facilitate detection and intervention. The aim of this study was to examine loneliness among Spanish older adults during the first wave lockdown and associated factors, in comparison to younger adults. An online survey was completed by 3508 adults (401 aged 60 or above). Older adults felt higher social loneliness than younger adults, but lower emotional loneliness. Living alone, poor mental health, and poor healthy habits were related to higher loneliness for both age groups. The results suggest that loneliness should be an important factor in primary care, and prevention efforts should be taken, e.g., by generating open and safe community spaces and contexts for social interaction and promoting the access and ability to use technologies that maintain social connections.

"Surviving the Violence, Humiliation, and Loneliness Means Getting High": Violence, Loneliness, and Health of Female Sex Workers.

Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to violence, isolation, and stigmatization. This study uses the theory of loneliness to explore the relations among violence, self-esteem, loneliness, health, and drug use. Specifically, this study tested a model in which loneliness mediates the relationship between situational (violence) and characterological (self-esteem) loneliness factors and physical and psychological health and drug abuse. The study sample consisted of 146 sex workers from one region of Spain, recruited through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling has been employed to test the hypothesis. The findings of this study suggest that two kinds of violence (physical and psychological) have a direct and positive influence on loneliness, so that higher levels of violence increase loneliness, while self-esteem has a protector role on loneliness. Loneliness has a direct and negative impact on psychological and physical health, and determines an increase in drug use, which, in turn, decreases both physical and psychological health. The results support, among other points, that policy makers and sex worker service programs need to be aware of how loneliness plays a role in the health and risk behavior of sex workers. Society has an important role to improve sex workers' health and minimize their risk behavior.

Factors Related to Mental Health During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain.

The COVID-19 disease has forced governments to adopt exceptional measures. The lockdown decreed in Spain in 2020 required citizens to stay confined at home, which might have affected their mental health. The objective is to identify factors that influenced adults' mental health during this period. A sample of 3,508 adults from the Spanish general population completed an online survey that collected sociodemographic data and information about daily planning and activities, healthy habits, loneliness, coping humor and mental health. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. According to the results, the proposed model showed good fit values, and latent variables explained 30% of the variance in mental health. Loneliness, coping humor, healthy habits, age and gender had a significant weight in the prediction of mental health during lockdown. Area of residence, number of days of confinement and number of people in the household were not related to mental health. This study addresses the effect of COVID-19 and social distancing measures by identifying risk and protective factors for the development of mental health difficulties. There is a need to target specific and early interventions aimed at mitigating the psychological impact of the pandemic while increasing well-being, especially in more vulnerable groups.