Table 2.
Characteristics of included studies
| Author & year | Type of review | Geographical setting of included studies | No. of relevant primary studies | Population | Year of included studies | Type of analysis | Exposure | Outcome | Quality rating/ overall confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depression – loneliness | |||||||||
| Cohen-Mansfield et al., (2016) | Systematic Review | Finland, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, UK | 12 | Older Adults | 2004–2012 | Narrative Synthesis | Loneliness | ‘Depression’ including studies measuring depressive symptoms, low mood, ‘uselessness’, ‘lack of taking initiative’, and ‘expecting negative reactions from caregivers’ | Critically low |
| Erzen & Çikrikci (2018) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 70a | Adults | 1980–2018 | Meta-analysis | Loneliness | Depression (general term “depression”) | Critically low |
| Depression – loneliness, social isolation, social support and social network size | |||||||||
| Choi et al., (2015) | Systematic Review | Malaysia, USA, New Zealand, Turkey, Mexico | 8 | Older Adults | 2003–2014 | Narrative Synthesis | Subjective and objective social isolation | Depression (symptoms) | Critically low |
| Courtin & Knapp et al., (2017) | Scoping Review | 15 countries overall, including western Europe (UK and Netherlands) and USA | 29 | Older Adults | 2000–2013 | Narrative Synthesis | Loneliness and social isolation | Depression | Critically low |
| Worrall et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 37 | Older Adults | 2007–2018 | Narrative Synthesis | Loneliness, Social Support & Social Network | Depressive symptom (severity) | Low |
| Depression – social support and/or social networks | |||||||||
| Edwards et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Germany, Columbia, USA | 13 | Active Christian clergy-members (7.6% United Methodist; 39.2% Catholic; 12.2% Presbyterian; 1% other Protestant denominations) | 1997–2019 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Depression (no specific clarification about whether depression diagnosis or symptoms) | Critically low |
| Gariépy et al., (2016) | Systematic Review | USA, Canada and Europe, Australia and New Zealand | 100 | All ages in general population | 1988–2014 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Depression (depression diagnosis or depressive symptoms) | Critically low |
| Guo & Stensland et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | USA | 32 | Older Chinese and Korean immigrants in USA | 1996–2016 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support & Social Networks | Depression (depressive symptoms) | Critically low |
| Guruge et al., (2015) | Scoping Review | Canada | 34 | Immigrant women youth | 1990–2013 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Depression (depressive symptoms) (n = 18 studies), or determinants of mental health in general (n = 16) | Critically low |
| Hall et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | United States | 7 | LGBQ adolescents (15–24 years of age) | 2000–2013 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support (from friends and family, sexuality specific social support) | Depression (symptom severity or threshold for clinically significant depressive symptoms) | Critically low |
| Mohd et al., (2019) | Systematic Review | China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Macau, Thailand | 24 | Older adults living in Asia | 2001–2016 | Narrative Synthesis | Structural and functional social support (includes social network size as an aspect of structural social support) | Depression (self-reported or diagnosed) | Critically low |
| Qiu et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | China | 4 | Chinese adults > age 55 | 2005–2019 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Clinician diagnosis of depression | Critically Low |
| Rueger et al., (2016) | Meta-analytic Review | Finland, Israel, Romania, Turkey, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Russia (k = 2 each); Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Kuwait, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Australia, United States | 341 | Children and adolescents | 1983–2014 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Depression (diagnosis, symptoms) | Low |
| Santini et al., (2015) | Systematic Review | USA, Asia, Europe | 50 | Adults from general population | 2004–2013 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support & Social Networks | Depression (symptoms, presence, onset or development) | Low |
| Schwarzbach et al., (2014) | Systematic Review | USA, Asia, Europe | 17 | Older adults | 1985–2012 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support & Social Networks | Depression (dimensional diagnosis, prevalence, incidence) | Critically low |
| Visentini et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | Finland, Hungary, India, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, USA | 18 | Patients with chronic depression | 1986–2015 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support & Social Networks | Chronic Depression (diagnosis) | Low |
| Perinatal/postnatal depression & anxiety - social support | |||||||||
| Bayrampour et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | USA, Canada, Hungary, Turkey, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Bangladesh, UK, South Africa, Greece | 22 | Pregnant women | 1982–2015 | Meta-analysis, Narrative Review | Social Support | Anxiety (symptoms, generalised anxiety, overall anxiety disorders in pregnancy) | Low |
| Bedaso et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Jordan, Nigeria, Italy, UK, Indonesia, Canada, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Turkey, Singapore, USA, China, Hungary, Greece, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, India, Finland, Malaysia, Sweden, Iran, Malawi, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Tanzania | 63 | Adult pregnant mothers | 2004–2019 | Meta-analysis, Narrative Review | Social Support | Any diagnosed depressive disorders and general anxiety disorder according to ICD and DSM or depressive disorders and general anxiety disorder based on a valid screening tool | Moderate |
| Desta et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | SNNPR, Oromia, Amhara, Harar, Addiss (regions within Ethiopia) | 4 | Postpartum women with postpartum depression in Ethiopia | 2018–2020 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Postpartum depression | Critically low |
| Nisar et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | 23 regions of Mainland China | 10 | Chinese women in perinatal period | 1996–2018 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Perinatal depression | Moderate |
| Qi et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | China | 9 | Chinese women who have given birth to at least one child including those living in countries other than China | 2004–2020 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Onset of post-partum depression | Critically Low |
| Razurel et al., (2013) | Systematic Review | UK, Canada, Taiwan, Israel, Australia and USA | 25 | Perinatal mothers | 2000–2009 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Postnatal depression (symptoms) | Critically low |
| Tarsuslu et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Global | 5 | Fathers post-partum | 2010–2019 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Post-partum depression measured on differing scales but established ones. | Critically Low |
| Tolossa et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Ethiopia | 5 | Women in postpartum period with all studies conducted in Ethiopia | 2016–2019 | Meta-analysis, Narrative Review | Social Support | Secondary outcome was to determine the main risk factors associated with PND with social support being one of the risk factors examined. | Low |
| Zeleke et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Ethiopia | 3 | Postnatal mothers | 2010–2020 | Meta-analysis, Narrative Review | Social Support | Diagnosis of PND. Does not specify if related to either onset or severity, just ‘more likely to have it’ | Low |
| Depression, anxiety, and OCD – loneliness and social isolation or social support or social capital | |||||||||
| Gilmour et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | United States, South Korea, Portugal, Hong Kong, Belgium, Taiwan | 5 | Young adults | 2011–2018 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Mental health conditions; Depression and anxiety | Low |
| Loades et al., (2020) | Rapid Systematic Review | USA, China, Europe and Australia, India, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Israel, Iran, and Russia | 63 | Children/adolescents | 1983–2020 | Narrative Synthesis | Isolation | Depression & anxiety (symptom severity) | Moderate |
| Mahon et al., (2006) | Meta-analytic Review | Not reported | 30 | Adolescents (11–23 years of age) | 1980–2004 | Meta-analysis | Loneliness | Depression (general term “depression”) and ‘social anxiety’, Social support | Critically low |
| Anxiety, and ADHD - loneliness | |||||||||
| Hards et al., (2021) | Rapid Systematic Review | United States, Australia, Canada, China, Taiwan | 8 | Predominantly children or adolescents with heightened distress, mental health problems, or diagnoses based on internationally recognized (DSM or ICD) | 1993–2020 | Narrative Synthesis | Loneliness | Depression, anxiety, and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) | Low |
| Anxiety – social support and/or social network | |||||||||
| Zimmermann et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Global | 4 | Adults in general population who had a clinically diagnosed anxiety disorder. They looked at anxiety disorders across the spectrum (outcomes included OCD, Specific Phobia, SAD, GAD etc.) | 2010–2014 | Narrative Synthesis | Measure of social support not defined at top level; underlying studies either measured social support (via scales) with one study looking at quantity of social network and experience of close friendships | Social support was looked at in relation to social anxiety disorder (2 studies) and as a risk factor for any anxiety disorder (1 study) | Moderate |
| PTSD – social support | |||||||||
| Allen et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Global but predominately USA and China | 50 | Child and adolescents | 1996–2019 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | Primary aim was to evaluate the overall relationship between social support and PTSD; secondary aim was to investigate the relationship between severity of PTSD relative to levels of social support | Moderate |
| Blais et al., (2021) | Meta-analytic Review | U.S. | 38 | Service members or veterans in the U.S. military | 1998–2019 | Meta-analysis | Types of Social support (perceived, enacted, structural, or social negativity); Sources of social support (military v. non-military); timing of social support (during deployment v. not during deployment) | Severity of PTSD symptoms | Moderate |
| Tirone et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Primarily USA | 29 | Adult betrayal trauma survivors | 2000–2019 | Meta-analysis | Social Support | PTSD symptom severity (understanding the moderators of) | Critically Low |
| Trickey et al., (2012) | Meta-analytic Review | UK, USA | 4 | Children and adolescents (6–18 years) | 1996–2007 | Meta-analysis | Low social support (including feeling isolated/ excluded and perceived alienation) | PTSD symptom severity and diagnosis | Critically Low |
| Zalta et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Global | 150 | All participants had to be exposed to a DSM-5 criterion event and had to be > 18 years; treatment studies were excluded and study population chosen on basis of their PTSD were excluded | 1980–2019 | Meta-analysis | Social support defined as negative social reactions; perceived level of support’ structural support; enacted support | PTSD symptom severity | Moderate |
| PTSD and Depression – social support and/or social network | |||||||||
| Scott et al., (2020) | Systematic Review | Global | 10 | Adults 18 years plus following bereavement after sudden / violent death | 1988–2019 | Narrative Synthesis | Informal Social Support | Relevant outcome to this was a psychiatric symptoms (including depression and PTSD) either clinical diagnosis or measure of symptom severity | Moderate |
| Psychosis – loneliness | |||||||||
| Chau et al., (2019) | Meta-analytic Review | USA, UK, Netherlands, Poland, Israel, USA, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, France, Australia | 31 | Adults with and without clinical diagnosis of psychosis | 1995–2018 | Meta-analysis | Loneliness | Psychosis (positive and negative symptoms, psychotic experiences) | Low |
|
Michalska da Rocha et al., (2018) |
Systematic Review | United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Israel, Poland | 13 | People with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder | 1993–2016 | Meta-analysis | Loneliness | Psychosis (symptoms) | Moderate |
| Lim et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | Ireland, Israel, Philippines, Poland, UK, USA, Serbia | 9 | People with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder | 1995–2016 | Narrative Synthesis | Loneliness | Psychosis (diagnosis) | Moderate |
| Psychosis – social support and/or social networks | |||||||||
| Degnan et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | USA, UK, Poland, Australia, Denmark, Austria | 16 | Adults with schizophrenia | 1989–2013 | Meta-analysis, Narrative Review | Social Networks | Schizophrenia (symptomatic and/or functional outcome) | Moderate |
| Gayer-Anderson and Morgan (2013) | Systematic Review | North America, Europe, Australia, Korea | 38 | People aged 16–64 years, first episode psychosis and general population samples with psychotic experiences or schizotypal traits | 1976–2011 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support & Social Networks | Early psychosis (first episode) | Critically low |
| Palumbo et al., (2015) | Systematic Review | USA, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, UK, Nigeria, Brazil | 20 | Adults with a diagnosed psychotic disorder | 1976–2013 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Networks | Psychosis (a standardised diagnosis of either schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, “narrow schizophrenia” spectrum disorder, or “psychosis”) | Critically low |
| Bipolar disorder – social support | |||||||||
| Greenberg et al., (2014) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 15 | Adults with bipolar disorder | 1985–2010 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Bipolar disorder (general term “bipolar disorder”, manic or depressive episodes) | Critically low |
| Studart et al., (2015) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 13 | People with bipolar disorder | 1985–2012 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Bipolar disorder (general term “bipolar disorder”, symptoms, mania and depression) | Critically low |
| Depression, Bipolar, Psychosis & Anxiety disorders – loneliness & perceived social support | |||||||||
| Wang et al., (2018) | Systematic Review | North America, Europe, Israel | 34 | Adults with mental illnesses | 1988–2016 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Isolation, Social Support | Depression, bipolar, schizophrenia/schizoaffective, anxiety, mixed mental illness (relapse, measures of functioning or recovery, symptom severity, global outcome) | Moderate |
| Eating disorders – social support | |||||||||
| Arcelus et al., (2013) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 4 | Patients with eating disorders (anorexia and/or bulimia), along with non-clinical populations (university students) and controls | 1992–1999 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Eating disorders (symptom severity) | Low |
| Mental ill-health in general (no specified mental health condition) – social support | |||||||||
| Casale & Wild, (2013) | Systematic Review | Not reported | 17 | Adult caregivers who have HIV and adult caregivers caring for HIV/AIDS affected children | 1995–2010 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Mental Health outcomes | Critically low |
| Tajvar et al., (2013) | Systematic Review | Middle Eastern Countries | 9 | Older Adults | 1986–2010 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Mental Health outcomes | Low |
| Mental ill-health in general (no specified mental health condition) – individual-level social capital | |||||||||
| De Silva et al., (2005) | Systematic Review | UK, Scotland, USA, Russia, South Africa, Zambia | 14b | Adults with common mental disorders (depression and anxiety) | 1992–2003 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Capital | Common mental disorders (onset and symptoms) | Critically low |
| Ehsan & De Silva et al., (2015) | Systematic Review | Mexico, USA, UK, Greece, Japan, Australia | 33b | Adults with common mental disorders (depression and anxiety) | Inception-2014 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Capital | Common mental disorders (onset and symptoms) | Low |
| COVID-19 context | |||||||||
| Covid-19 Perinatal/postnatal depression - social support | |||||||||
| Fan et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Israel, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Colombia, Japan, the United States, Iran | 19 | Pregnant women | 2020 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Psychiatric symptoms of depression and anxiety | Low |
| Covid 19: PTSD – social support | |||||||||
| Hong, Kim and Park, (2021) | Systematic Review | China, Italy, Spain, Israeli, Ireland, USA, Poland | 16 | All adults | 2020 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Support | Post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSS and PTSD), depression, anxiety | Critically low |
| Covid: 19: Eating disorders – social isolation | |||||||||
| Miniati et al., (2021) | Systematic Review | Saudi Arabia, Spain, UK, Italy, Turkey, France, Lebanon, Australia, USA, Canada, Germany | 21 | Existing eating disorder diagnosis | 2020–2021 | Narrative Synthesis | Social Isolation | Eating disorders (Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating) | Critically low |
a Review paper states that 88 studies were included in the review, but only 70 papers were referenced and authors did not respond to requests for the full list. The types of study included in this umbrella review is derived from the 70 studies that are referenced in the paper.
B Only individual-level social capital studies are included in this umbrella review.
Abbreviations: DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (diagnostic manual); ICD = International Classification of Diseases (diagnostic manual); OCD = obsessive compulsive disorder; SAD = seasonal affective disorder; GAD = generalised anxiety disorder; PTSS = Post-traumatic stress symptoms; PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder UK = United Kingdom; USA = United States of America