Establishing Social Connections in Urban Areas: Evaluating a Community-based Programme

Launched by QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON · Jan 27, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is exploring a new program aimed at helping young adults in London who often feel lonely. The program offers various community activities and online spaces for people to connect, along with free or low-cost social events. The goal is to see how well this program works and if it is a good value for the community.

To participate, you need to be between 20 and 40 years old, live in London, and feel lonely sometimes or often. You should also be able to communicate in English well enough to join discussions and fill out questionnaires. If you join, you'll be involved for 18 weeks, where you can expect to take part in community events and share your experiences. It's important to note that if you have participated in a similar program before or have certain health issues, you may not be eligible for this study.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Age 20-40
• • Reside in London
• • Reports that they are some of the time or often lonely in response to a single questionnaire item ("How often do you feel lonely?)
• • No prior interaction with the community-based intervention we are investigating
• • Able to communicate in English sufficiently well to engage in qualitative interviews and complete the outcome measures and questionnaires.
• • Available and willing to participate in the study for 18 weeks
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Age \< 20 or age \>40.
• • Resides outside of London.
• • Does not report frequent levels of loneliness ("hardly ever or never" in response to single questionnaire item).
• • Previously attended any event or is an existing member of the community-based programme that is forming the intervention arm.
• • Unable to communicate even with communication support.
• • Planned unavailability for \>3 weeks during intervention and follow up periods.
• • Participating in another research project related to loneliness.
• • Reports current severe unstable health problems (mental or physical) or is deemed overburdened with respect to participating in research.