Loneliness & Society 5.0:Public Lecture

This presentation was delivered on 12 May 2022 to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week

Addressing loneliness and social isolation in 52 countries: a scoping review of national policies

BackgroundEven prior to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was ample evidence that loneliness and social isolation negatively impacted physical and mental health, employability, and are a financial burden on the state. In response, there has been significant policy-level attention on tackling loneliness. The objective of this scoping review was to conduct a loneliness policy landscape analysis across 52 countries of the UN European country groups. Our policy analysis sought to highlight commonalities and differences between the different national approaches to manage loneliness, with the goal to provide actionable recommendations for the consideration of policymakers wishing to develop, expand or review existing loneliness policies.MethodsWe searched governmental websites using the Google search engine for publicly available documents related to loneliness and social isolation. Seventy-eight documents were identified in total, from which 23 documents were retained. Exclusion of documents was based on predetermined criteria. A structured content analysis approach was used to capture key information from the policy documents. Contextual data were captured in a configuration matrix to highlight common and unique themes.ResultsWe could show that most policies describe loneliness as a phenomenon that was addressed to varying degrees in different domains such as social, health, geographical, economic and political. Limited evidence was found regarding funding for suggested interventions. We synthesised actionable recommendations for the consideration of policy makers focusing on the use of language, prioritisation of interventions, revisiting previous campaigns, sharing best practice across borders, setting out a vision, evaluating interventions, and the need for the rapid and sustainable scalability of interventions.ConclusionsOur study provides the first overview of the national loneliness policy landscape, highlighting the increasing prioritisation of loneliness and social isolation as a major public health and societal issue. Our findings suggest that policymakers can sustain this momentum and strengthen their strategies by incorporating rigorous, evidence-based intervention evaluations and fostering international collaborations for knowledge sharing. We believe that policymakers can more effectively address loneliness by directing funds to develop and implement interventions that impact the individual, the community and society

Could the minimum intervention oral care framework help improve the quality of oral health delivery and access to NHS primary dental care?

Access to NHS primary dental care services is a perennial issue in the UK. Two aspects must be considered when measuring access to dental care: 'entry access', which relates to service availability resulting in realised initial or continued access; and 'effective access', the delivery of effective, equitable and efficient care, which manifests as equitable and optimal outcomes of care. It is proposed that the minimum intervention oral care (MIOC) delivery framework provides a person-focused, prevention-based, susceptibility/needs-related, team-delivered approach to ensuring effective access to primary oral and dental care. A theory of change model could identify the key barriers to overcome the implementation of the MIOC approach, involving all key stakeholders in primary oral and dental care delivery.</p

Investigating public awareness, prevailing attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence and abuse: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom

Background: Reported Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) cases have increased since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown. Understanding the general public’s view about DVA is vital, as it would help develop targeted interventions and effective public policies to tackle DVA. We investigated public awareness, attitudes and perceptions towards DVA, and explored mechanisms to tackle DVA in the community setting. Methods: In-depth personal interviews were conducted with 29 participants who responded to study invitations and adverts on social media. A topic guide was used to ensure consistency across the interviews, which were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically to detect emergent themes concerning DVA. Results: All respondents were aware of the concept of abuse. Thirty-eight percent declared either having experienced DVA directly or that they knew someone close to being abused. More than half of the respondents were not aware of existing DVA supportive services in the UK. Overarching themes generated from the contextual analysis included contributing factors for DVA, challenges and barriers facing victims and proposals for future interventions. Conclusions: The public has a broad understanding of the impacts of DVA. Simultaneously, the public fail to recognise specific instances or events in their daily lives. Raising public awareness, particularly in children through the school curriculum, highlighting existing support services and introducing the routine use of short screening tools for DVA in primary care can increase awareness, early identification and effective interventions. Sustained, multi-level community facing interventions are recommended to reduce stigma and fear associated with DVA

Additional file 1 of Public libraries to promote public health and wellbeing: a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling adults

Supplementary Material

Exploring the link between self-management of migraine and emotional wellbeing: a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling migraine sufferers

Abstract Background Globally, an estimated 14% of adults live with migraine disease which impacts their physical, emotional and social wellbeing. To target the disease comprehensively, research recommends a multidisciplinary approach to migraine management. Yet, at present, migraine management primarily centers around pharmaceutical treatments. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which emotional awareness could influence the uptake of self-care behaviours of community-dwelling adults with migraine. Methods A cross-sectional online survey explored personal experiences with migraine disease and strategies or behaviours to manage migraine attacks. Chi-squared tests were used to investigate differences in ratings of migraine prevention and management strategies between users and non-users of the strategies. Univariable logistic regressions were used to assess the effectiveness of self-care behaviours to manage or prevent migraine attacks. Results We surveyed 170 community-dwelling adults with migraine in the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany and the United States. Most (85%) respondents had experienced migraine for over five years, where 42% of attacks usually lasted several days. Whereas we did not differentiate between diagnosis by a neurologist or self-diagnosis, the most common diagnoses in the cohort were migraine without aura (38.9%) and migraine with aura (29%). Staying hydrated was the most popular preventative strategy (87%), 70.2% used prescription medication and 64.9% changed their diet and/or supplements. Almost all ( 92.4%) respondents stated that their mood or emotions could trigger their migraine attacks. Keeping a headache or mood diary was the lowest-rated prevention strategy and was rated as "probably ineffective" or causing "no change" in preventing migraine attacks. Over a third (39.7%) kept track of their physical wellbeing and symptoms. Reasons stated for tracking symptoms included to identify triggers (65.8%), show reports to a healthcare professional (59.6%), understand when they must take medication (48.1%), track improvements (67.3%) or deteriorations (67.3%). Conclusions Migraine management is dominated by pharmaceutical management for acute pain attacks and lifestyle changes for managing migraine long-term. Perception of the effectiveness of those techniques is high, whereas perception of interventions that target the emotional or psychological components of chronic pain management (keeping a mood diary, and mental health support) is mixed. There exists a gap between the recommended biopsychosocial approach and the current state of migraine management. Graphical Abstrac

Additional file 5 of Investigating public awareness, prevailing attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence and abuse in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study

Additional file 5. Preliminary codes, initial thematic framework and final categories and subcategories. A fuller description of the themes and resultant framework

Additional file 1 of Investigating public awareness, prevailing attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence and abuse in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study

Additional file 1. Methods. A full description of the method

Additional file 2 of Investigating public awareness, prevailing attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence and abuse in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study

Additional file 2. Interview Guide - core and probe questions, asked in semi structured interviews that relate to participant’s DVA experiences. The research team developed the interview topic guide after defining the research objectives and reviewing relevant literature