Problematic levels of loneliness are widespread in scores of countries, a new study shows today.
Analysis of evidence from 113 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019, published in today’s edition of*The BMJ*, shows important data gaps, particularly in low and middle income countries, and significant geographical variation in loneliness.
US researchers recently suggested that one third of the population in industrialised countries experience loneliness, while one in 12 people experiences loneliness at a level that can lead to serious health problems.
To follow this up, Australian researchers led by the University of Sydney examined the prevalence of loneliness globally by trawling research databases and finding 57 observational studies that reported national estimates of loneliness in 113 countries or territories from 2000 to 2019.
Data were available for adolescents aged 12-17 years in 77 countries or territories; young adults aged 18-29 in 30 countries; middle aged adults from 30-59 in 32 countries, and 60+ in 40 countries.
Data coverage was higher in high income countries, in particular Europe, compared with low and middle income countries.
The research team included 212 estimates for 106 countries from 24 studies in the meta-analysis.
Pooled prevalence of loneliness among adolescents ranged from 9.2% in South-East Asia to 14.4% in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
In adults, meta-analysis was conducted for the European region only and the team found the lowest prevalence of loneliness was consistently seen in northern European countries at 2.9% for young adults; 2.7% for middle aged adults; and 5.2%, for older adults.
The highest prevalence of loneliness was in eastern European countries, where it was 7.5% for young adults; 9.6% for middle aged adults; and 21.3% for older adults.
Although there were insufficient data to come to conclusions about trends of loneliness on a global scale, the team says even if the problem of loneliness had not worsened during their search period, COVID-19 could have had a profound impact on loneliness.
The authors say their findings reinforce the urgency of approaching loneliness as an important public health issue.
“Public health efforts to prevent and reduce loneliness require well-coordinated ongoing surveillance across different life stages and broad geographical areas,” they write.
“Sizeable differences in prevalence of loneliness across countries and regions call for in-depth investigation to unpack the drivers of loneliness at systemic levels and to develop interventions to deal with them,” they conclude.
Surkalim DL, Luo M, Eres R et al. Prevalence of loneliness across 113 countries: systematic review and meta-analysis. *BMJ* 10 February 2022. DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2021-067068
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