Background

Recent research has suggested that psychosocial factors influence the antibody response to vaccine, including SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccines. Here we investigated whether social cohesion and loneliness were predictive of antibody response to a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. We also tested if the association between social cohesion and antibody response was mediated by feelings of loneliness.

Methods

Participants (N = 676) COVID-19 antibody data were extracted from March 2021 wave of the Understanding Society COVID-19 study from the UK. Relevant socio-demographics, health and lifestyle, loneliness, social cohesion indices were also used in a series of hierarchical linear regression to test our main hypotheses.

Results

After controlling for covariates (e.g., age and chronic health conditions), lower social cohesion was associated with a lower antibody response. Further, the association between social cohesion and poorer antibody responses was mediated by loneliness; those reporting lower social cohesion also reported higher loneliness, which in turn was associated with lower antibody response.

Conclusion

This study confirms that feelings of ‘being in it together’ relate to the strength of the antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination, emphasising the importance of the social cohesion agenda during the pandemic.

中文翻译：

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社会凝聚力和孤独感与对 COVID-19 疫苗接种的抗体反应有关

背景

最近的研究表明，社会心理因素会影响对疫苗的抗体反应，包括 SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) 疫苗。在这里，我们调查了社会凝聚力和孤独感是否可以预测对单剂 COVID-19 疫苗的抗体反应。我们还测试了社会凝聚力和抗体反应之间的关联是否由孤独感介导。

方法

参与者 ( N  = 676) COVID-19 抗体数据提取自英国 Understanding Society COVID-19 研究的 2021 年 3 月浪潮。相关的社会人口统计学、健康和生活方式、孤独感、社会凝聚力指数也被用于一系列层次线性回归来检验我们的主要假设。

结果

在控制协变量（例如，年龄和慢性健康状况）后，较低的社会凝聚力与较低的抗体反应相关。此外，社会凝聚力与较差的抗体反应之间的关联是由孤独感介导的；那些报告社会凝聚力较低的人也报告了较高的孤独感，而这又与较低的抗体反应有关。

结论

这项研究证实，“在一起”的感觉与对 COVID-19 疫苗接种的抗体反应强度有关，强调了大流行期间社会凝聚力议程的重要性。