Objectives: We evaluated the association between two measures of social connection prior to COVID-19-social isolation and functional social support-and loneliness during the pandemic.
Method: The study was a retrospective longitudinal analysis of 20,129 middle-aged and older adults enrolled in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). We drew upon two waves of CLSA data spanning three years and the supplemental COVID-19 Questionnaire Study of eight months to conduct our analysis.
Results: Social isolation prior to COVID-19 was associated with loneliness during COVID-19 only among persons who were lonely before the pandemic (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02, 1.35). Higher functional social support prior to COVID-19 was inversely associated with loneliness during the pandemic, when adjusting for pre-COVID-19 loneliness (aOR: 0.37; 95%CI: 0.34, 0.41) and when assessing incident loneliness during the pandemic (adjusted relative risk: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.55, 0.63).
Conclusion: Policies are needed to identify people who are both socially isolated and lonely, and provide them with functional social support, to prevent worsening loneliness during public health crises.
Keywords: CLSA; COVID-19; functional social support; loneliness; social isolation.