The Association of Social Support and Loneliness with Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analysis

Aina Gabarrell-Pascuet, Helena García-Mieres, Iago Giné-Vázquez, Maria Victoria Moneta, Ai Koyanagi, Josep Maria Haro () and Joan Domènech-Abella
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Aina Gabarrell-Pascuet: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Helena García-Mieres: Health Services Research Unit, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Iago Giné-Vázquez: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Maria Victoria Moneta: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Ai Koyanagi: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Josep Maria Haro: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain
Joan Domènech-Abella: Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing Research Group, Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-25

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.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; anxiety symptoms; posttraumatic stress symptoms; loneliness; social support; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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