Understanding Trends in Loneliness During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands: The Moderating Role of Gender, Age, and Living Arrangement

Recent studies have shown loneliness levels to be impacted substantially by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ensuing governmental social lockdowns. However, most of these studies have only investigated the change in levels of loneliness at two time points, before and after the breakout of the pandemic. This study offers the opportunity to assess loneliness levels at multiple time points throughout the pandemic, therefore providing an in-depth examination of how government social restriction measures impacted trends in loneliness in the Netherlands. The potential moderating roles of gender, age, and living arrangement were also examined.
Longitudinal data from the Covid-Questionnaire within the Lifelines Cohort Study from the northern Netherlands was used. Data was gathered between April 2020 and July 2021 with a total of 21 waves and a final sample of 769,526 observations nested in 74,844 individuals. The outcome was a standardized loneliness index score based on different subjective dimensions of loneliness. Direct associations between the time period of the lockdown and levels of loneliness were estimated using fixed-effects linear regression, and moderation effects were tested by means of two-way interactions. 
Our results showed that loneliness levels increased during periods when lockdown measures were enacted, and decreased in periods when these measures were relaxed. Women and young adults were found to have stronger fluctuations in their loneliness levels across the observation period, whereas living arrangement was found to not play a notable moderating role in the impact of the lockdowns on loneliness levels. 
This study calls for special attention to be paid to the public issue of loneliness during periods of lockdown. 
Keywords: Loneliness; lockdown; Covid-19; living arrangement; longitudinal; fixed-effects