The Association of Social Support and Loneliness with Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analysis.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 20(4)2023 02 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36833463
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Research suggests that changes in social support and loneliness have affected mental disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are a lack of studies comparing the robustness of these associations.AIMS:
The aims were to estimate the strength of the associations of loneliness and social support with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022) in the general population.METHOD:
The method entailed a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of quantitative studies.RESULTS:
Seventy-three studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled correlations of the effect size of the association of loneliness with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress were 0.49, 0.40, and 0.38, respectively. The corresponding figures for social support were 0.29, 0.19, and 0.18, respectively. Subgroup analyses revealed that the strength of some associations could be influenced by the sociodemographic characteristics of the study samples, such as age, gender, region, and COVID-19 stringency index, and by methodological moderators, such as sample size, collection date, methodological quality, and the measurement scales.CONCLUSIONS:
Social support had a weak association with mental disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic while the association with loneliness was moderate. Strategies to address loneliness could be highly effective in reducing the impact of the pandemic on social relationships and mental health.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
/
Systematic_reviews
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Int J Environ Res Public Health
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
España
Publication country:
CH
/
SUIZA
/
SUÍÇA
/
SWITZERLAND