Evidence gaps and data needs

Together with the Tackling Loneliness team at DCMS and a brilliant group of loneliness researchers, we have been working to update what we know collectively. The Tackling loneliness evidence review has looked at where we are on the gaps and what we need to know next to inform action.

This follows our our 2018 review and our role is to hold the knowledge of what’s known and to get it into practice. We do this by highlighting what the evidence gaps are and work with partners to fill evidence gaps. Find the evidence gaps in loneliness across different domains in the table below. This table will be updated continuously.

Loneliness: evidence gaps and data needs table

Explore the evidence gap and data needs table below. Select different categories in the drop-down at the top and find the footnote links and recommendations overview underneath the table.

Footnote links

1. https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/data-releases
2. https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/search/term/neighbourhood-and-residence
3. https://www.sportengland.org/know-your-audience/data/active-lives
4. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/people-and-nature-survey-for-england
5. https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=8682
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/community-life-survey–2
7. https://www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/education/research/impact/bbc-loneliness-experiment/
8. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/longitudinal-study-of-young-people-in-england-cohort-2-wave
9. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/taking-part-survey
10. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics
11. https://whatworkswellbeing.org/resources/workplace-wellbeing-questionnaire-methodology/

Recommendations

• Encourage robust and high-quality evaluations of loneliness interventions in the UK. Our measurement bank already exists and can be used to inform researchers.
• Looking beyond the immediate impact of interventions — consider the long term.
• Exploration of the effectiveness of interventions designed for different subgroups.
• Economic analysis needs to be embedded into robust longitudinal trials looking at the effectiveness of interventions over time.