ObjectiveTo systematically review the incidence of social isolation in Chinese elderly population. MethodsCNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science and CENTRAL databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the incidence of social isolation in China from inception to May 2022. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies, then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 15.1 software. ResultsA total of 20 studies involving 86 111 subjects were included. Meta-analysis results showed that the incidence of social isolation among the elderly in China was 27.54% (95%CI 22.15% to 57.74%). The results of subgroup analysis showed that gender, age, educational level, marital status, self-assessment of health, living style, year of publication, and region surveyed were all influential factors of the incidence of social isolation among the elderly in China. ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that the incidence of social isolation among the elderly in China is relatively high. Due to the limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
