40% of cocooners reported negative impacts on mental health

One-in-six older people who were unwell did not seek medical help while cocooning with half of them saying it was a fear of contracting Covid-19.

Cocooning has had a negative physical and mental impact on those undertaking it — but most older people still believe the restrictions were the right course of action as the pandemic spread.

A new study by researchers from Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital found that almost 40% of participants reported that their mental health was worse or much worse since the start of cocooning and that more than 57% of participants reported loneliness at least some of the time. It found that one-in-eight people were lonely ‘very often’ and those living alone were almost twice as likely to report loneliness.