TY - JOUR T1 - Evidence-informed and targeted public health interventions are required to reduce the broader behavioural health impact of loneliness and social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic JF - Evidence Based Nursing JO - Evid Based Nurs SP - 63 LP - 63 DO - 10.1136/ebnurs-2020-103384 VL - 25 IS - 2 AU - Akhtar Ebrahimi Ghassemi AU - Parastou Azadeh Ranjbar Y1 - 2022/04/01 UR - http://ebn.bmj.com/content/25/2/63.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Bu, F, Steptoe, A, Fancourt, D. Loneliness during a strict lockdown: Trajectories and predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 38,217 United Kingdom adults. Soc Sci Med., 2020; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113521 Developing targeted public health interventions to identify larger behavioural health impacts of loneliness due to COVID-19 lockdown are required, and these evidence-informed measures should help mitigate loneliness and improve mental health outcomes in high-risk populations during pandemics.Future research should focus on developing loneliness scales using surveys tailored to assessing different dimensions of loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a global lockdown and introduced social distancing policies limiting face-to-face activities and social interaction. With growing research on loneliness, and its associations with potential risk of mental illness, Bu et al examined the growth trajectories and predictors of loneliness during the pandemic lockdown. … ER -