An NHMRC funded five-year project

Three studies aim to understand the relationship between social isolation, loneliness, and chronic disease in older adults.

This research will address a current lack of representation of individuals living with chronic diseases through three studies.

Study 1: focus groups

This study will use a series of focus groups with consumers (ie people with lived experience of chronic diseases) to identify possible mechanisms underlying bidirectional relationships between chronic disease outcomes, social isolation and loneliness.

We anticipate that a range of cognitive, behavioural, emotional and health factors will be reported by participants as contributing to this bidirectional relationship.

The results of this study will inform the other two planned studies in this research stream. Data collection has already been completed for this study.

Study 2: longitudinal online survey

This will be a five-year online survey, completed annually by participants.

This study will test the directional relationships between specific health and psychological mechanisms (informed by findings from Study 1) that are proposed to underlie the relationships between social isolation, loneliness and chronic disease outcomes that might inform treatment targets.

The knowledge from this study will lead to increased understanding of how these variables fit together and interact with each other to increase risk for social isolation and loneliness, as well as the impacts on disease outcomes over the long term.

Furthermore, this study will help identify the most important mechanisms driving increases in social isolation and loneliness, and reductions in chronic disease outcomes. These key mechanisms will be targeted in a new loneliness module added to our established Chronic Conditions Course in Study 3.

Study 3: intervention

This study will run from years two to five of the research stream, and will be a randomised controlled trial, comparing an enhanced and a standard version of our cognitive behavioural program for people with chronic disease.

We will use our established and publicly available online and teletherapy Chronic Conditions Course (developed with NHMRC funding) that promotes psychological adjustment to chronic disease and has demonstrated efficacy in reducing depression, anxiety and disability.

The program will be enhanced to include additional therapy content to target factors identified in Study 1 and the first year of Study 2 as being linked to social isolation, loneliness and poorer disease outcomes.