Watching TV doesn’t make us more lonely

This week, the BBC announced that they are scrapping free TV licences for up to 3.7m people aged over 75. Will this have an impact on loneliness among older people? WaveLength have just published some analysis I conducted for them which could shed some light on this question.

(It is worth remembering that it was the Government who gave the BBC the responsibility for funding free TV licences back in 2015, starting this year. So, we should be clear that this decision was made because of the withdrawal of £608m of Government funding and not because the BBC is mean.)

WaveLength

We have been working with WaveLength – a charity which provides radios, tablets and televisions to people who are lonely and cannot afford to buy the equipment themselves – for a few years now.

Initially, we conducted some qualitative interviews with recipients of TVs, radios or tablets from WaveLength, who told us that it provided comfort and companionship, alleviating their loneliness. They reported that it reduced their social isolation and provided access to information and inspiration. These recipients also told us that it lifted low moods and increased their motivation. Our report was published by WaveLength in 2018.

We followed this with analysis of data they collected routinely from their recipients. WaveLength asked recipients to complete standardised measures of their self-rated health and loneliness before receiving equipment from them and again three months later. We analysed follow-up data from 197 people, about half of whom had previously been homeless and a half had mental health problems.

We found a reduction in loneliness and an improvement in their self-rated health over this time period. Of the equipment received, it was receipt of a TV which was associated with a reduction in loneliness. This effect was maintained when the baseline scores were included in the analysis, which controlled for possible ceiling effects caused by high levels of loneliness in the sample. The report of this data was published by WaveLength today.

This data was drawn from an observational cohort. There was no control group or randomisation. Therefore, we cannot be certain that the reduction in loneliness and improvement in self-rated health we observed occurred because of other things going on in the lives of the recipients of the equipment. It is possible that the equipment was provided as part of their resettlement into new accommodation after living on the streets, in a hostel or escaping violence. However, we can observe that those who were provided with a TV experienced better outcomes.

Although more experimental work is required to test the hypothesis that the provision of a TV reduces loneliness independent of other factors, it is safe to conclude from our analysis that having a TV doesn’t make you more lonely.

Concluding thoughts

So, will the scrapping of free TV licences for people aged over 75 (who are more at risk of loneliness than the general population) have an impact? Well, if it puts people off from owning a TV, it certainly won’t help to reduce loneliness among older people.