Being Lonely and Isolated May Steal Years of Good Health

Better Together: Fair warning, this one is a bit of a bummer. Apparently, roughly half of American adults feel lonely, and almost as many are socially isolated. So Tulane researchers set out to determine what this trend is costing us in terms of healthy years of life, and their answer is pretty heartbreaking.

The Study: The team followed more than 277,000 adults ages 40 to 69 who started out free of major chronic diseases. Using age 50 as a baseline, they estimated how many disease-free years people could expect. Unsurprisingly, the biggest hit was to mental health: Men who were both lonely and isolated could expect 5.8 fewer years without depression or anxiety than men who were neither, and for women it was 3.7 fewer. However, physical health took a hit, too (albeit a smaller one), with women having 2.4 fewer disease-free years and 1.7 for men.

The Takeaway: Combatting the effects of this trend is challenging. Healthier habits like exercise and good sleep softened the toll of isolation (defined as having few social connections), but they didn’t significantly ease the risks tied to loneliness (feeling unsatisfied with the ones you have).

Keep in Mind: This was an observational study, so it shows a link and can’t prove loneliness caused these health problems.