Loneliness has been found to reduce a person’s healthy life by nearly six years.
The finding is worrying in a world where people have fewer friends and are mostly likely to live alone.
Tulane University researchers said nearly half of all adults in the US say they are lonely and this is underappreciated as a public health risk.
In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers reported that loneliness and social isolation was costing people nearly six years of life free from mental disorders like depression and anxiety.
It also took a “smaller but still significant” toll on physical health.
“Overall, the study found that social isolation and loneliness can have a significant impact on disease-free life expectancy,” lead author Lu Qi said. “This includes both physical and mental disease.
“The findings weren’t surprising to me. Previous studies found that social isolation and loneliness are related to mortality, especially premature mortality, and this study provides additional evidence.”
The researchers tracked and analysed data from 277,489 adults between the ages of 40 and 69.
All of the participants began the study free of seven major chronic conditions: diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, dementia, cancer, depression and anxiety.
They then measured how loneliness and social isolation affected how many disease-free years people could expect to live, using age 50 as a reference point.
“Compared to their counterparts with neither loneliness nor social isolation, women experiencing both lived 2.4 fewer years free of physical disease, and men lived 1.7 fewer years,” the study report said.
“The toll on mental health was even greater: women lived roughly 3.7 fewer years free of mental disorders, and men lived approximately 5.8 fewer years.”
The researchers found that a healthier lifestyle measurably narrowed the loss of disease-free years linked to social isolation.
However, a healthier lifestyle did not significantly reduce the added health risks of loneliness, “suggesting the two conditions may call for different kinds of intervention”. – Newsreel
The full report is here
