'Touch hunger': trajectory and predictors of longing for physical contact during the COVID-19 pandemic in people with and without depressive, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorders.

BACKGROUND

Little is known about 'touch hunger' (longing for physical contact) during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for people with pre-existing mental health disorders. We aimed to 1) explore whether touch hunger differs between people with and without depressive, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2) study the development of touch hunger in relation to loneliness, and 3) examine its predictors during lockdown.

METHODS

Data were aggregated from three Dutch ongoing prospective cohorts with similar methodology for data collection. We included participants with pre-pandemic data gathered during 2006-2016, and who completed up to 9 online questionnaires between October 2020 and February 2022. Touch hunger trajectories were analyzed using linear mixed models. Sociodemographics, personality traits, (chronicity of) mental health disorders, and COVID-19-related factors were analyzed as predictors of touch hunger using multivariate linear regression analyses.

RESULTS

We included 1061 participants with (n = 811) and without (n = 250) mental health disorders. In all chronicity groups, touch hunger increased during lockdown and decreased after lockdown. Extraversion (β = 0.256, P < 0.001), social distancing due to COVID-19 anxiety (β = 0.122, P = 0.001), and death of a close contact from COVID-19 (β = 0.073, P = 0.02) predicted higher touch hunger, while living with a partner (β = -0.109, P = 0.004) or with a partner and children (β = -0.147, P < 0.001) were protective factors for touch hunger. Remarkably, pre-pandemic psychiatric diagnosis did not predict touch hunger during lockdown.

CONCLUSIONS

Touch hunger rose during the lockdown and was widespread regardless of mental health conditions, indicating a fundamental human need for physical contact, especially among extroverts.