Disability and loneliness in the United Kingdom: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of trends and transitions

Abstract

Background: Loneliness can have a detrimental impact on health, yet little is known about the association between disability and loneliness. Methods: Secondary analysis of three waves of data collected between 2017 and 2020 by the UK’s annual household panel study, Understanding Society. Direct age-standardisation was used to compare the prevalence of loneliness at each wave and the persistence of loneliness across all three waves for participants with/without disabilities aged 16–65 years. Transitional probabilities for the stability of loneliness, the stability of non-loneliness, the onset of loneliness and the offset of loneliness between consecutive waves were also estimated. Results: At..