DOI: 10.3886/e208782v1
title: Reaching people with disabilities to learn about their experiences of social connection and loneliness

description: Background: People with disabilities
 experience higher rates of social isolation and loneliness than people
 without disabilities, but there is limited information about how these
 conditions are manifested in people with specific types of
 disabilities.<br>
 <br>
 Objectives: Using
 data collected as part of the second administration of the National Survey on
 Health and Disability (n = 2,132), our objectives were to determine if
 disability type and recruitment method added explanatory power to observed
 levels of social connectedness, after controlling for socio-demographic and
 environmental indicators.<br>
 <br>
 Methods: We used
 hierarchical regression to evaluate how socio-demographic, disability,
 environmental, and recruitment type explained four outcome variables for
 different dimensions of social connectedness, including satisfaction with
 social activity, quantity of social connections, quality of social
 connections, and loneliness.<br>
 <br>
 Results: Across all
 models, employment status (not employed), having mental illness/psychiatric
 disability, lack of transportation for social needs, and recruitment type
 (MTurk) significantly predicted lower levels of social connectedness.<br>
 <br>
 Conclusions: The study provides evidence that
 using alternative methods, such as MTurk, to complement conventional
 recruitment strategies can improve understanding of social isolation and
 feelings of loneliness among people with disabilities, particularly those with
 mental illnesses and/or psychiatric disorders who are less likely to be
 accessed through group affiliations, but who are at greater risk for
 experiencing social isolation and feelings of loneliness.
description: Presence of Common Scales: 
 <b>Social Connectedness:</b><br>
 - Satisfaction with social activity (scale from 0 to 4).<br>
 - Quantity of social connections (0 to 9).<br>
 - Quality of social connections (0 to 5).<br>
 - Loneliness (measured using the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale).<br>
 <b>Disability Measurement</b><b>:</b>
 Self-identified disability type and responses to disability screening
 questions.<br>
 <b>Socio-demographic Characteristics</b><b>:</b> Various categorical scales (age, gender, race/ethnicity,
 etc.).
description: <b>Sample Size:</b> 2,132 respondents
 (1,374 recruited through conventional methods and 758 through Amazon
 Mechanical Turk (MTurk)).<br>
 <b>Inclusion Criteria</b><b>:</b>
 Adults aged 18 and older living in the United States who self-identified as
 having a physical condition, mental illness, impairment, disability, or
 chronic health condition affecting daily activities.
description: Adults
 over 18 years old living in the U.S. with disabilities.. Smallest Geographic Unit: United States (Based on county of residence matched to Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes, categorized using the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) rural-urban classification scheme (metropolitan, micropolitan, or non-core/rural).)
description: mail questionnaire; web-based survey; 
 Information
 related to disability type, health status, transportation, housing, community
 participation, personal assistance services, public benefits, employment,
 insurance coverage, unmet health care needs, income, and demographics.