Surviving Through Solitude: A Prospective National Study of the Impact of the Early COVID-19 Pandemic and a Visiting Ban on Loneliness Among Nursing Home Residents in Sweden

Social interactions of persons with dementia living in special care units in long-term care: A mixed-methods systematic review

Per E Gustafsson, Julia Schröders, Ingeborg Nilsson, Miguel San Sebastián and Jessica Kelley

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2022, vol. 77, issue 12, 2286-2295

Abstract: ObjectivesTargeted social distancing measures were widely implemented for nursing home residents when the extremely high coronavirus disease 2019 mortality in this setting became apparent. However, there is still scarce rigorous research examining how the pandemic and accompanying social distancing measures affected loneliness in this group. This prospective nationwide Swedish study of nursing home residents aimed to examine the impact on loneliness of the early phase of the pandemic and of a national visiting ban at nursing homes.MethodsA panel was selected from a total population survey of all nursing home residents in Sweden March–May 2019 and 2020 (N = 11,782; age range 70–110 years; mean age 88.2 years; 71% women). Prospective pretest–posttest and controlled interrupted time series (ITS) designs were employed, with time trends estimated by date of returned questionnaire. Generalized linear models were used for estimation of effects, adjusting for demographic-, survey-, and health-related covariates.ResultsLoneliness prevalence increased from 17% to 19% from 2019 to 2020 (risk ratio, RR (95% confidence interval, CI) = 1.104 (1.060; 1.150)), but which was explained by self-reported health (RR (95% CI) = 1.023 (0.982; 1.066)). No additional impact of the visiting ban on loneliness trends was found in the ITS analyses (RR (95% CI) = 0.984 (0.961; 1.008)).DiscussionThe moderate but health-dependent increased risk of loneliness, and the lack of impact of the nationwide visiting ban at nursing homes, suggests that this ostensibly vulnerable group of nursing home residents also shows signs of resilience, at least during the early phase of the pandemic.

Keywords: Interrupted time series analysis; Long-term care facilities; Social relationships (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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