About this project

In 2023 the Health Economics Group was one of four research teams awarded a $1.7 million grant as part of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Targeted Call for Research (TCR): Loneliness, social isolation and chronic disease management 2022. The overall TCR aim is to investigate ways to identify and support people with chronic disease who are experiencing loneliness and social isolation. This research project will be conducted between 2024 – 2028.

The aim of the Connecting for Better Health project is to provide decision-makers with the knowledge and tools to successfully implement acceptable, targeted, equitable and cost-effective strategies for tackling loneliness and social isolation as part of a more holistic approach to chronic disease management in Australia. We will address gaps in our understanding about the links between loneliness and social isolation and chronic diseases, identify evidence-based strategies for breaking those links that are consistent with consumers’ preferences and compare the equity and cost-effectiveness claims of each strategy. We will develop web-based geographical hotspot visualisations, a registry of services and a model based decision aid for service planners. Collectively, the outputs of this research will comprise a holistic priority setting framework that provides actionable insight into decisions about where to invest, into what kind of interventions, and whom to target. We aim for this priority setting framework to support a move away from siloed solutions to more holistic planning approaches that ameliorate the devastating impacts of loneliness and social isolation in Australia.

We will develop our priority setting framework via three related workstreams and eight studies. Our experienced and multidisciplinary team has been constituted to balance advanced quantitative and qualitative methods expertise, specialist content knowledge in loneliness, mental health and physical health, and strong community engagement capacity in both youth and aged sectors.

Project objectives

• Objective 1 is to understand how loneliness and social isolation impact people at risk of developing or already having chronic diseases – much of which we do not know. (Workstream 1)
• Objective 2 is to identify interventions that can be incorporated into the management of people with chronic diseases. (Workstream 2)
• Objective 3 is to develop tools and resources which will help equip service planners to assist individuals who are at risk by providing effective and cost-effective interventions. (Workstream 3)