SynthesisOccupational medicine (Oxford, England)2023
Loneliness in the workplace: a mixed-method systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Occupational medicine (Oxford, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Lonely at Work: The Moderating Role of Leader-Member Exchange in the Association Between Workplace Loneliness and Perceived Task and Contextual Performance.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Psychometric validation of brief scales for loneliness at work in Korea: the Three-Item Scale for Loneliness at Work (SLAW-3) and Single-Item Scale for Loneliness at Work (SLAW-1).Annals of occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- Understanding workplace peer support among healthcare assistants providing palliative and end-of-life care at home: A realist review.Palliative medicine · 2026Review
- How Does Employee Dependence on Intelligent Machines Influence Turnover Intention? A Serial Mediation via Workplace Objectification and Workplace Loneliness.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sense of Belonging, Burnout, and Work Intentions Among US Physicians.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Participant Perceptions of a University Continuing Education Intervention Addressing Job Burnout and Self-Care Strategies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Beyond contextual stressors: uncertain reflective functioning, loneliness and emotional exhaustion as psychological correlates of perceived stress in prison officers.International journal of prison health · 2026Article
- Development and validation of brief measures of workplace loneliness.Journal of occupational health · 2026Article
- Perceived organizational toxicity and workplace loneliness among public-school teachers in one province of Türkiye: a cross-sectional statistical mediation analysis of organizational agility.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Employed cancer survivors develop a peer-support intervention to improve social connections: a participatory design study.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- All the Lonely People: An Integrated Review and Research Agenda on Work and Loneliness.Journal of management · 2026Review
- When mission meets isolation: a five-wave longitudinal study of how workplace loneliness erodes job embeddedness through role stress and organizational identification among railway police.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Workplace Loneliness Experience Among Older Professionals (Aged ≥50 Years) in the Context of Digitalization: Protocol for a Scoping Review.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Workplace loneliness and the communication climate of healthcare workers: the moderating role of perceived social competence.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- When Loneliness Leads to Help-Seeking: The Role of Perceived Transactive Memory System and Work Meaningfulness.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Workplace and non-workplace loneliness: a cross-sectional comparative study on risk factors and impacts on absenteeism and mental health among employees in Spain.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Conceptualising workplace loneliness: a qualitative investigation with UK workers.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Insomnia mediates the longitudinal association between loneliness and burnout among nurses.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Association of professional environment with loneliness and perceived social isolation among individuals in their second half of life.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLoneliness is a risk factor for a range of mental and physical health problems and has gained increasing interest from policy-makers and researchers in recent years. However, little attention has been paid to loneliness at work and its implications for workers and employers.
aimsIdentify workplace, health and personal factors associated with workplace loneliness.
methodsWe searched five databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and EBSCO Business Source Complete) for relevant articles published from 1 January 2000 to 23 February 2023. Quantitative data were synthesized using narrative synthesis and random-effects meta-analysis of correlation coefficients. Qualitative data were synthesized using thematic synthesis. Evidence quality was appraised using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool.
resultsWe identified 49 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Pooled results indicate that workplace loneliness was associated with lower job performance (r = -0.35, 95% CI -0.49, -0.21), reduced job satisfaction (r = -0.34, 95% CI -0.44, -0.24), worse worker-manager relationship (r = -0.31, 95% CI -0.38, -0.24) and elevated burnout (r = 0.39, 95% CI 0.25, 0.51). Qualitative results suggest links between loneliness and inadequate workplace social interactions and mental health problems. As most studies used cross-sectional data and few adjusted for potential confounders, the direction and robustness of the associations remain untested.
conclusionsOur results indicate that loneliness is associated with poor occupational functioning and well-being among workers. Results also show that loneliness is associated with modifiable aspects of the work environment, suggesting that the workplace may offer a fruitful avenue for interventions targeting loneliness.
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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.