Association Between Time Spent With Family and Loneliness Among Japanese Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

  1. Rintaro Fujii
  2. Yusuke Konno
  3. Seiichiro Tateishi
  4. Ayako Hino
  5. Mayumi Tsuji
  6. Kazunori Ikegami
  7. Masako Nagata
  8. Reiji Yoshimura
  9. Shinya Matsuda
  10. Yoshihisa Fujino

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Abstract

Background: The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had large impacts on society, including people practicing social distancing. This behavioral response has increased loneliness. Loneliness not only increases the risk of psychiatric disorders, but also affects occupational mental health. To avoid the negative effects of isolation, it is important to have social contact with other people, especially family members. Employment and economic instability caused by COVID-19 may have also affected family relationships. It is important to understand the association between family relationships and loneliness in workers under the pandemic.

Methods: We collected usable data from 27,036 Japanese workers who completed an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were asked how long they spend with members of their family during mealtimes or at home, and if they experienced loneliness; the latter was assessed by a single question. Other questions included whether participants lived with their spouse, or with someone in need of care. To estimate the odds ratios (ORs) of time with family associated with loneliness we used a multilevel logistic model nested in the prefecture of residence, with adjustments for age, sex, marital status, presence of a cohabitant requiring care, equivalent income, educational level, number of employees in the workplace, frequency of remote work, availability of someone for casual chat, smoking, drinking, time for leisure interests, and cumulative rates of COVID-19 in the prefecture.

Results: Ten percent (2,750) of the 27,036 participants reported loneliness. The survey showed a significant negative correlation between time spent with family and loneliness ( p < ‘0.001): participants who spent more time with family were less likely to feel loneliness. In addition, not living with a spouse and living with someone in need of care were associated with loneliness (not living with a spouse: p < 0.001; living with someone in need of care: p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Loneliness under COVID-19 pandemic conditions was negatively associated with time spent with family members, with the converse result found for participants cohabiting with someone in need of care. These associations suggest the potential value of changes to working practices and interventions to combat loneliness.

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  1. Version published to 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.786400
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.30.21264346: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsField Sample Permit: 2.1 Study Design and Participants: We conducted an online survey from December 22 to 26, 2020, under the Collaborative Online Research on the Novel-coronavirus and Work (CORoNaWork
    IRB: The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan.
    Consent: Participants provided informed consent by filling out a form on the survey website.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    . (StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA.).
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    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:
    Several limitations of the present study should be addressed. First, the results are based on an Internet survey, and so the generalizability of the results is open to question. However, we purposively aimed for a diverse target population in terms of gender, occupation, and region, based on COVID-19 incidence data. Second, although there are several ways to assess loneliness (34), we did so by using a single question, following previous studies on loneliness that used a single assessment item (35). Finally, the survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it remains unclear how the pandemic and resulting changes in daily and occupational environments might have affected the survey outcomes. In this study, 10% of participants reported feelings of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The feeling of loneliness was associated with time spent with family members, with contrasting results depending on the status of the cohabitants. Greater consideration should be given to interventions such as support for caregivers, and encouragement regarding remote work and other potential changes, consistent with the worker’s family and living conditions.

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.09.30.21264346v1 on medRxiv