Fears for mental health during outbreak as a quarter of adults in the UK admit they feel lonely

Almost a quarter of adults living under the coronavirus lockdown in the UK have felt lonely - raising concerns about the long-term risk to mental health.

A survey by charity the Mental Health Foundation found the most affected group were young people aged 18 to 24, with 44% saying they felt lonely.The next most affected group were adults aged 25 to 34, with 35% saying they had felt loneliness as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. One in six older people aged over 55 said they had felt lonely as a result ofcoronavirus.

The study was carried out as part of a major UK-wide longitudinal researchproject called Coronavirus: Mental Health and the Pandemic. The survey was conducted over two days at the beginning of April and askedpeople whether they had felt loneliness in the previous two weeks.The UK-wide project is being led by the charity in partnership with theUniversity of Cambridge, Swansea University, University of Strathclyde and Queen's University Belfast.

The research also revealed a major surge in feelings of loneliness, which more than doubled across the lockdown period. When the researchers carried out the first round of the survey in March, shortly before the lockdown started, 10% of UK adults said they had felt lonely. This had risen to 24% by the beginning of April.

YouGov sampled 2,221 UK adults between April 2 and 3.