ReviewSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2020
The economic costs of loneliness: a review of cost-of-illness and economic evaluation studies.
Review in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 54 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- An Updated Systematic Literature Review of the Economic Costs of Loneliness and Social Isolation and the Cost Effectiveness of Interventions.PharmacoEconomics · 2025Pooled it
- [Internet-based self-help for loneliness-a systematic review].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of relational agents for loneliness across age groups: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Cost-effectiveness evidence of mental health prevention and promotion interventions: A systematic review of economic evaluations.PLoS medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Assessing a facilitated social network intervention for health outcomes in lonely and socially isolated people: the pragmatic, cluster-randomized PALS trial.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Outcomes of Interventions for Reducing Loneliness in Elderly Patients in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Gerontology · 2025Trial
- Unwanted loneliness in older adults: sociodemographic, economic and psychosocial determinants and self-reported loneliness-inducing situations.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Study Protocol: Connecting older adults through multi-level programmes for alleviating loneliness in Hong Kong older adults (COMPASS-HOA).Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life and cost-of-illness in young people seeking peer support at @ease: A Dutch burden of disease study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Multidimensional Loneliness Among University Students: A Latent Profile Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The impact of loneliness on healthcare costs and service utilisation and the cost-effectiveness of loneliness interventions: systematic review.BJPsych open · 2025Review
- The societal cost of 'unwanted' loneliness in Spain.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025Article
- Homophily and social influence as mechanisms of loneliness clustering in social networks.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Improvement in quality of life and loneliness after the community connections program: a community-based pilot intervention in South Australia.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Understanding the Association Between Home Broadband Connection and Well-Being Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: Nationally Representative Panel Data Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Researching gender and loneliness differently.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Community-level determinants of loneliness and social isolation: a population-based cohort study across younger and older adults.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLoneliness and social isolation can occur at all stages of the life course and are recognized as a global health priority. The aim of this study was to review existing literature on the economic costs associated with loneliness and social isolation as well as evidence on the cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent or address loneliness and social isolation.
methodsA bibliographic database search was undertaken in Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Embase, supplemented by a grey literature search and a reference list search. Papers were included that were published in English language in peer-reviewed literature in the past 10 years, reporting costs of loneliness and/or social isolation or economic evaluations of interventions whose primary purpose is to reduce loneliness and/or social isolation, including return on investment (ROI) or social return on investment (SROI) studies.
resultsIn total, 12 papers were included in this review, consisting of four cost-of-illness studies, seven economic evaluations and five ROI or SROI studies. Most studies were conducted in the UK and focused on older adults. Due to the inconsistent use of the terms loneliness and social isolation, as well as their measurement, the true economic burden can only be estimated to a certain extent and the comparability across economic evaluations and ROI studies is limited.
conclusionsThe paucity of evidence that is available primarily evaluating the economic costs of loneliness indicates that more research is needed to assess the economic burden and identify cost-effective interventions to prevent or address loneliness and social isolation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
31119308What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.