How can living environments buffer the consequences of prolonged social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 control measures mainly include slowing down SARS-CoV-2 virus spread, with social distancing being one of the key components and consequences of this disease prevention strategy. As a result, the majority of the population has experienced the consequences of social isolation on health and well-being to some extent. We hypothesize that indoor and outdoor physical environment is an essential contributor to health and well-being during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Such knowledge is essential in preparation for future crises as well as for the long-term planning of housing for the (ageing) population in Sweden and abroad.
Building on two recently funded projects by FORMAS and the Swedish Research Council about the effects of the outdoor and indoor environments to tackle social inequality and enhance active and healthy ageing, the overarching aim of this project is assess the impact of COVID-19 on the associations between the living environments and health and well-being. More specifically, we aim to assess pre/during (and eventually, post) pandemic effects of living environments on health and well-being, including relocation patterns, differences by age, sex, socioeconomic and civil status, seasonal effects as well as several others.
This is a Swedish register-based study with additional data from several other regional cohorts and 30+ years of follow-up. The data will be analysed by using standard regression techniques.