Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the name for a group of lung conditions, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which cause breathing difficulties.
According to the Asthma + Lung UK, around 1.2 million people in the UK are living with diagnosed COPD. That’s around 2% of the whole population or 4.5% of all people aged over 40. It’s an increasingly common condition too. In the last decade, the number of people with a COPD diagnosis increased by 27%. Many of these people live with several other long-term conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or depression.
In previous research, people with COPD have consistently described feeling isolated and lonely. Estimates suggest that between 10-35% of people with COPD may be experiencing loneliness.
Living with feelings of loneliness is difficult and upsetting for people. Evidence from other areas of health research has shown that loneliness can damage both your physical and psychological health, including putting you at higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. There are also economic consequences, with people less able to work, and using health and care services more.
A team of psychology and palliative care researchers, based at the Health Psychology Division and Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London, led by Dr Lisa Brighton, have initiated research and engagement activities to better understand and highlight how loneliness is affecting the physical and mental health of people with COPD.
People with COPD are likely to be at particular risk of loneliness: they face a shrinking social world due to the impacts of their symptoms on their mobility. This is compounded by societal issues of stigma and shame due to perceptions of their illness as ‘self-inflicted’ and more recently, negative public reactions to symptoms like cough due to associations with Covid-19
Within her fellowship, Dr Brighton aims to develop a better understanding around loneliness and the wider psychosocial health of people with COPD, to generate preliminary evidence to address this, and engage with diverse stakeholders around this topic.
In particular, the fellowship aims include:
The project will include secondary analysis of qualitative data to explore loneliness in people with COPD. This data comes from another ARC-adopted project, Breathe Plus, where Dr Brighton interviewed people living with both COPD and frailty as part of a project about rehabilitation.
Alongside this, she will undertake training with the health psychology team, share learning so far with teams across psychology and respiratory care, and work with diverse stakeholders to develop applications for future research funding. This includes connecting with policy influencing organisations including Asthma + Lung UK and Campaign to End Loneliness.
This research forms part of an ESRC fellowship awarded to Dr Lisa Brighton, hosted by the Department of Psychology in collaboration with the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London.
This project has been adopted by ARC South London and is expected to finish in October 2023.
