WASHINGTON — Is feeling alone the greatest health problem Americans face? While the obesity epidemic has long been front-and-center in major cities across the U.S., new research finds that loneliness and social isolation is an even greater public health threat than being overweight.
Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University conducted two meta-analyses of previous studies to determine how social isolation, loneliness, and living alone plays a role in a person’s risk of dying.
In an analysis of 148 studies that included more than 300,000 people total, her research team found that “a greater social connection” cuts a person’s risk of early death by 50 percent.
“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need — crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social isolation or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment,” says Holt-Lunstad in an American Psychological Association press release. “Yet an increasing portion of the U.S. population now experiences isolation regularly.”
In her second analysis, she looked at the role that loneliness, social isolation, and living alone played in a person’s lifespan. Using 70 studies that included more than 3.4 million participants (mostly from North America, but some studies did look at people in Europe, Asia, and Australia), the research team concluded that all three were as much of — and in some cases more — a threat to a person’s health as obesity and other risk factors.
All three conditions were found to be equally hazardous and significantly raised the risk of premature death.
“There is robust evidence that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase risk for premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators,” says Holt-Lunstad.
According to AARP’s Loneliness Study conducted in 2010, 35 percent of Americans age 45 and older are suffering from chronic loneliness — which equates to about 43 million people. Similarly, half the country’s adult population is unmarried and more than a quarter live alone, according to U.S. census data.
“These trends suggest that Americans are becoming less socially connected and experiencing more loneliness,” adds Holt-Lunstad, who presented the findings today at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington.
Moving forward, Holt-Lunstad hopes that health officials nationwide spend significant resources to help tackle the issues of loneliness and isolation. She suggests primary care physicians screen for such conditions during routine examinations and that Americans consider ways to ensure they enjoy a socially-connected retirement in similar ways they plan financially for retiring. Otherwise, she sees the issue growing far worse in the near future.
“With an increasing aging population, the effect on public health is only anticipated to increase. Indeed, many nations around the world now suggest we are facing a ‘loneliness epidemic.’ The challenge we face now is what can be done about it,” she says.
American women are garbage.
I replaced mine with a PlayStation and the occasional prostitute.
What model and what model?
Nothing created more social disconnect than the legislation of speech by political correctness “police”. People quit communicating from their hearts, when they feared that what they said at any time might be used against them. The attack against speech lead to the voting in a man who says whatever is on his mind, whenever he wants to say it, Free speech is the end of a lot of isolation for many, and an era of trust and openness. No more speech police.
All one needs is a facebook, twitter, snap chat and an other form of social media account. Plus a selfie stick.
At 66, I have purposely pulled away, and distanced myself from those I once knew. My good buddy past on, and I dislike everyone else. I find I would much rather be alone, then have to tolerate such lies, and those who don’t like me, yet act as they do because I may have something they want! Self serving and only use me, I stay alone!!
Chuckling…..the best thing to be right now is isolated. Oh I don’t mean like the younger generation who never lifts up their heads from their devices to interact with humanity and needs an isolated safe space. I mean responsible, savvy, and at peace, enjoying the little things in life, the best things, which I am. I want nothing to do with most of what is walking around outside. If people aren’t fat nowadays (especially the women), they’re stupid.
I have no intention of allowing the fat and ignorant of America to stop us from MAGA and I participate in and agree with everything conservative and good for American. A lot of good is happening right now. These fatties and idiots pose no real threat to a shifting America that is headed back in the right direction. Isolated in spirit? No, I’m happy and optimistic now that we’ve crushed the Left.
The older one gets the lonelier one gets. Partly, because many of the people you once knew have passed. Great-Grandparents, grandparents, parents and brothers sisters and friends. If you live till 100, you’ll know this to be true and you’ll have all the wisdom in the world to contemplate…why?
its bc a great deal of them wind up getting divorced in their mid to late 30’s unexpectedly. happenend to me when my ex of 19 years who is bipolar went off meds and abandoned me and our three kids and decided to cheat for a year straight. now I am alone and going back to school. he is a ghost and it is like I was never married. I am at the point where I can see myself being a lone for a long time. I am only 39 and of course would like to eventually remarry, but that trust is broken. the article does not hit this point that it is a massive problem right now and it is so hard to get back into the pool when you have kids and trust issues. no one wants to be alone, but the social media has destroyed peoples concept of how to talk to one another. all they do is stare at their stupid iPhone and not look at each other and have a conversation.
Whenever I feel lonely I just go to the comment section and make some kind of statement about God’s will. Then I’m assured a lively conversation with a bunch of Ahole atheists.
I go to the comment section for a barrel of laughs. There are some VERY funny, articulate people out there . . . even the ones that can’t spell!
I think the problem is that many many people are not likable and make very lousy friends. This also explains why less and less people are getting married. And that people are having fewer children. Let’s face it, no one wants to be friends with people that are selfish.
If you want a friend, get a dog.
-Gordon Gekko
Another BS Liberal study! Do something worthwhile with that grant money. How about studying coffee drinkers for the umpteenth time. We need more opinions on this crap like we need a hole in the head.
If you think about it most of the problems and crises that occur in our lives are due to the interaction with other people. By staying alone and greatly limiting these interactions the problems and dramas also greatly decrease.
This is just stupid. Anyone that is alone can go anywhere like a store or bar and instantly be more socially connected. You can go talk to anyone just about anywhere almost anytime you want.
Well in the end you die in your own arms anyway
Whatever happened to people like gary cooper? The strong silent type. These days people dont know how to shut up
Yeah I can see it now. The results of the next autopsy will be this man died from a broken heart. From now on we wont arrive at physical reasons for deaths we will come up with mental ones. Maybe this woman died because she didnt pet her dog that morning with enough love.
Wouldnt someone that was alone a lot and drove a lot less than normal people statistically live longer then most people when accidents account for so many deaths?
The most depressing thing to me is that medical professionals actually believe, and spread this kind of crap to people
Pushing the narrative that being a part of the greater social collective in order to achieve success or happiness is fundamental to the use of propaganda, to the formation of men’s attitudes. The powers that be require people to fear loneliness and to fear the concept of social ostracization from ‘the pack’, otherwise peer pressure and groupthink don’t work, at which point leading the masses around by the nose becomes a futile effort. Humans aren’t hive minded. Though it’s very popular these days to treat any semblance of uniqueness or individual thought as a chemical imbalance to be addressed by psychotropic drugs designed to help you.. ‘better assimilate into society’. Because there can only be something wrong with you. Never the society, or it’s direction.
There is a big difference between knowing what to believe and knowing how to think. Sadly, there are so very few people left in our ‘progressive’ and meticulously socially engineered Western societies who have any idea what that difference is. And they are treated very poorly by the groupthink-ruled majority of society even just for attempting to have a dialogue and value truth over all else. That is true loneliness.
The greatest threat to my health has been the democrat party. Against the will of the American people, their healthcare choices were reduced, limited, and in some cases eliminated. Get the democrat party (big government overreach) out of my life, my freedoms and my liberties.