A loneliness Epidemic in a COVID-19 Pandemic

What factors are related to loneliness in middle and older aged people? 

Inspired by his recent paper in Psychological Medicine (March 2020), Drew Altschul has written an article for Psychology Today exploring who may be at highest risk of becoming lonely during this COVID-19 pandemic. 

Read the article online on Psychology Today's website. 

 

[Loneliness, who should we look out for? People aged 45-69 are just as likely to be lonely as those 70+. Men living alone are at higher risk, As are those with a glass-half-empty personality.]

 

Drew is a research psychologist at the University of Edinburgh. His current work lies at the intersection of quantitative psychology, epidemiology, and public health.

 

 

Original Research paper 

Altschul, D., Iveson, M., & Deary, I. (2020). Generational differences in loneliness and its psychological and sociodemographic predictors: An exploratory and confirmatory machine learning study. Psychological Medicine,1-10. doi:10.1017/S0033291719003933