The CLoCk study: A retrospective exploration of loneliness in children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic, in England.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic children and young people (CYP) were socially restricted during a stage of life crucial to development, potentially putting an already vulnerable population at higher risk of loneliness, social isolation, and poorer wellbeing. The objectives of this study are to conduct an exploratory analysis into loneliness before and during the pandemic, and determine which self-reported factors are associated with loneliness.
Methods and Findings: Participants from The Children with Long COVID (CLoCk) national study were invited to take part via an online survey, with a total of 31,017 participants taking part, 31,016 of which reported on their experience of loneliness. Participants retrospectively answered questions on demographics, lifestyle, physical health and mental health and loneliness before the pandemic and at the time of answering the survey. Before the pandemic 6.5% (2,006/31,016) of participants reported experiencing loneliness "Often/Always" and at the time of survey completion 17.4% (5,395/31,016) reported feeling lonelier. There was an association between meeting the research definition of long COVID and loneliness [3.49 OR, 95%CI 3.28-3.72]. CYP who reported feeling lonelier at the time of the survey than before the pandemic were assigned female at birth, older CYP, those from Black/African/Caribbean/Black British or other ethnicity groups, those that had 3-4 siblings and lived in more deprived areas.
Conclusions: We demonstrate associations between multiple factors and experiences of loneliness during the pandemic. There is a need for a multi-faceted integrated approach when developing interventions targeted at loneliness. It is important to follow up the CYP involved at regular intervals to investigate the progression of their experience of loneliness over time.
Competing Interests: TS is Chair of the Health Research Authority and therefore recused himself from the Research Ethics Application. TC is a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence committee for long COVID. She has written self-help books on chronic fatigue and has done workshops on chronic fatigue and post infectious syndromes. TC also has a grant looking at long COVID in adults. MGS reports grants from MRC and Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging & Zoonotic Infections, University of Liverpool. He also reports a role as Independent external and non-remunerated member of Pfizer’s External Data Monitoring Committee for their mRNA vaccine program. He is Chair of Infectious Disease Scientific Advisory Board for Integrum Scientific LLC, Greensboro, NC, USA and director of MedEx Solutions Ltd. He reports minority stock ownership for Integrum Scientific LLC, Greensboro, NC, USA and majority stock ownership for MedEx Solutions Ltd. He also reports a gift from Chiesi Farmaceutici SPA to his institution of a clinical trial investigational medicinal product without encumbrance and distribution of same to trial sites. He is also a non-remunerated independent member of HMG UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE, COVID-19 Response) and HMG UK New Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG). All remaining authors have no conflicts of interest. Data cannot be shared publicly due to ethical and legal considerations. All requests for data will be reviewed by the Children & young people with Long Covid (CLoCk) study team, to verify whether the request is subject to any intellectual property or confidentiality obligations. Requests for access to the participant-level data from this study can be submitted via email to Clock@ukhsa.gov.uk with detailed proposals for approval. A signed data access agreement with the CLoCk team is required before accessing shared data. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials."
(Copyright: © 2023 McOwat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)