Abstract
Loneliness and lack of social well-being are associated with adverse health outcomes and have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smartphone communication data have been suggested to help monitor loneliness, but this requires further evidence. We investigated the informative value of smartphone communication app data for predicting subjective loneliness and social well-being in a sample of 364 participants ranging from 18 to 78 years of age (52.2% female; mean age = 42.54, SD = 13.22) derived from the CORONA HEALTH APP study from July to December 2020 in Germany. The participants experienced relatively high levels of loneliness and low social well-being during the time period characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from positive associations with phone call use times, smartphone communication app use was associated with social well-being and loneliness only when considering the age of participants. Younger participants with higher use times tended to report less social well-being and higher loneliness, while the opposite association was found for older adults. Thus, the informative value of smartphone communication use time was rather small and became evident only in consideration of age. The results highlight the need for further investigations and the need to address several limitations in order to draw conclusions at the population level.
Highlights
Loneliness is associated with an increased mental and physical health burden and premature mortality [1,2,3,4,5] and has been described as a major public health concern [6].During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have introduced contact restriction measures to minimize the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
A German survey conducted from April to June 2020 investigated the socioeconomic consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and found that loneliness increased in the adult population during the early phases of the pandemic in Germany [7]
This study investigated whether smartphone communication app use was associated with self-reported levels of loneliness and social well-being across various ages during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Loneliness is associated with an increased mental and physical health burden and premature mortality [1,2,3,4,5] and has been described as a major public health concern [6].During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have introduced contact restriction measures to minimize the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A German survey conducted from April to June 2020 investigated the socioeconomic consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the SOEP-CoV-Study) and found that loneliness increased in the adult population during the early phases of the pandemic in Germany [7]. In line with these findings, a nationally representative study from the UK showed that 35% of the participants reported feelings of loneliness during the pandemic [8]; a report from the US found a level of loneliness that was 43% above previously identified levels [9]
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