Evidence base
BMC Public Health
The State of Loneliness and Social Isolation Research: Current Knowledge and Future Directions
What it found
This review maps the current landscape of loneliness and social isolation research, identifying methodological gaps across the field. It highlights inconsistent measurement approaches as a key barrier preventing meaningful comparison of findings across studies.
Why it matters for practice
Before commissioning or comparing evaluation data on loneliness interventions, read this: it explains why cross-study comparisons in this field are often unreliable and flags measurement inconsistency as a structural problem, not just a quirk of individual studies.