The epidemiology of social isolation, social support and loneliness

During the Covid19 pandemic, our awareness of physical distancing and social health have been heightened. Prior epidemiological research has already established that poor social health (social isolation, lack of social support and loneliness) dramatically affects ones’ mental and physical health and increases their risk of death by 50%. Poor social health also has economic implications through increased use of health services. People who are socially isolated rate their physical health more poorly, and utilise health services more frequently than those who are not socially isolated. Research has demonstrated that social isolation is associated with more general practitioner visits, medication use, accident and emergency service use, outpatient appointments, hospital stays, and nursing homes admissions, all of which carry high economic burden. Australia has a different geographical population spread compared to other countries. We tend to have less dense populations, even in the metropolitan areas. It is important to improve understanding of social health in the contemporary Australian context, as findings from other countries with different geographical population spreads are not necessarily generalisable to Australia. Strategies to identify groups at high risk and improve social health in Australians is important not only for individual benefit, but also to allow planning for social services in a time of mounting economic pressure on federal budgets. POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS: (A) The project can initially utilise pre-existing, de-identified data from Australia’s largest active clinical trial in healthy ageing, the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) study. ASPREE is a 5-year randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of low-dose aspirin compared to placebo in 16,703 community-dwelling Australian adults aged ≥70 years. Additionally, this project will use the sub-study ALSOP (ASPREE Longitudinal Survey of Older Persons). which recruited 14,909 Australians. The combination of ASPREE and ALSOP provide an opportunity to explore the relation between HRQOL, socialising, difficulty and psychological health in older Australian adults. (B) The project can collect new data to assess differences between social health measurements in the community. Importantly, people may complete scales differently based on age, gender and other socio-demographic characteristics. (C) The project can engage with local communities and councils to evaluate possible solutions to poor social health. For example, social prescribing. Social prescribing involves a trusted referrer connecting a person to a link worker, who acts as a resource while the individual creates their own personalised plan, identifying opportunities and avenues for enrichment to enhance their quality of life. See: ASPIRE Australian Social Prescribing Institute of Research and Education (ASPIRE) https://www.creatingopportunitiestogether.com.au/ (D) Others to be discussed. Candidates must possess the desire to undertake extensive data analysis in STATA.