Project Overview

Social isolation and loneliness are serious public health concerns linked to increased mortality and poorer mental and physical health outcomes in older adults, leading to increased health and social service use. Several approaches including digital technology have been described to mitigate social isolation and loneliness but there are disparities in access to digital technologies especially among older adults related to equity issues such as lack of digital skills, disabilities, gender, discrimination, geographic divide, socio-economic status and affordability. Our objective is to develop a digital evidence portal or toolkit to support decision making about the use of technology to mitigate social isolation and loneliness in older adults and promote healthy aging and socially connected lives. This project will inform health policy and practice aimed at keeping older adults socially connected and healthy within their homes and/or communities. It will contribute towards building a strong evidence architecture as part of WHO’s strategy to address social isolation and loneliness which is a priority issue considered in the Decade of Healthy Ageing.