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- Page navigation anchor for Impact of COVID-19 on loneliness: A medical student's perspectiveImpact of COVID-19 on loneliness: A medical student's perspectiveWe read with great interest the paper written by Wong et al., which attempted to identify the pandemic’s impact on elderly’s mental health.1 We acknowledge the importance of identifying risk factors of mental health deterioration, but highlight the article’s shortfalls.The study did not account for method bias associated with the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, a unidimensional measure of loneliness that uses negative-word association in the 6-item scale to determine an elder’s mental state. This causes method effects that skew results towards a negative outlook, depicting higher levels of loneliness in a vulnerable population that already experience higher levels of low mood and loneliness.2 Using the original 11-item scale with periodic telephone follow-ups during the peak and aftermath of the pandemic would provide a more reliable picture of the impact of lockdown.Aside from social isolation, one must consider the psychological impact of additional comorbidities and social factors that went undetected due to the lack of medical consultations and social support. This includes financial hardship and distress from the concurrent political unrest - confounding factors that were unaccounted for.In addition, there was no justification for the increase in missed appointments during the pandemic. Plausible reason...Competing Interests: None declared.