Social Isolation as a predictor for mortality: Implications for COVID-19 prognosis
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
The health benefits of social support have been widely documented. However, the social distancing practices from the COVID-19 pandemic is causing social disruption on a grand scale, potentially causing poor health outcomes. Through Google Trends analysis, we found a COVID-19-related surge in interest surrounding “loneliness.” We assessed if social isolation and loneliness increase the risk for all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality (ICD-10: I00–I99) and used the data to create a conceptual framework. Using the 10-year overall and cardiovascular mortality follow-up data (n = 12,019) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2008), we conducted survival analyses and found that individuals who experience social isolation or loneliness have a significantly higher likelihood of overall and CVD mortality than those without support. These effects generally remained strong with further adjustment for NHANES-detected health and demographic differences showing the need to address COVID-19 related loneliness through increasing social nearing.
Article activity feed
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.15.20066548: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: ” Ethnicity was categorized as “Non-Hispanic White,” “Non-Hispanic Black,” “Hispanic,” and “Other.” Ethics Compliance: Before data collection for NHANES, the NCHS received approval from the NCHS Research Ethics Review Board (changed from the Institute Review Board (IRB)), continuance of the protocol #2011-17. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Gender was dichotomized as “male” and “female,” with female as the reference category. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We first used Google Trends to access Internet search patterns by analyzing a portion of all web queries … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.15.20066548: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: ” Ethnicity was categorized as “Non-Hispanic White,” “Non-Hispanic Black,” “Hispanic,” and “Other.” Ethics Compliance: Before data collection for NHANES, the NCHS received approval from the NCHS Research Ethics Review Board (changed from the Institute Review Board (IRB)), continuance of the protocol #2011-17. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Gender was dichotomized as “male” and “female,” with female as the reference category. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We first used Google Trends to access Internet search patterns by analyzing a portion of all web queries on the Google Search website and other affiliated Google sites in the United States (Carneiro & Mylonakis 2009). Googlesuggested: (Google, RRID:SCR_017097)Statistical analyses were conducted using the SAS System for Windows (release 9.1; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC) and SUDAAN (release 9.0; Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC). SAS Institutesuggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:The main areas that they considered were the closure of educational facilities, a stay at home order, closure of non-essential businesses, and limitation of travel (IHME 2020). All of these policies were potential contributors of loneliness. As expected, one of the major drivers of how loneliness was experienced in the United States is how people experienced this feeling in New York City. On March 18, 2020, New York’s governor closed down schools (IHME 2020). Subsequently, by March 22, 2020, the state governor implemented a stay at home order for the state. This can be clearly linked to a relative search volume of 91 for the term “loneliness.” The findings from this study help demonstrate a clear link between loneliness and social isolation, as experienced due to COVID-19 related policy, and mortality even aside from the presence of other important determinants of mortality. Among adults, social isolation is associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. According to our findings, social isolation is associated with 35 percent higher overall mortality rate than those individuals who have social support. Previously, Holt-Lunstad et al. (2015) conducted a meta-analysis of 70 studies involving more than 3.4 million participants followed for an average of seven years. The likelihood of dying during the study period increased by 26 percent for those who reported loneliness (feeling alone), 29 percent for those who were socially isolated (having few social contac...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
-
