Why Loneliness May Be the Next Big Public-Health Issue
Living alone is linked with increased chance of mortality
Justin Worland | March 18, 2015
The subjective feeling of loneliness increases risk of death by 26%, according to the new study in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Social isolation — or lacking social connection — and living alone were found to be even more devastating to a person’s health than feeling lonely, respectively increasing mortality risk by 29% and 32%.
<more at >http://time.com/3747784/loneliness-mortality/; related links: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25790413 (Loneliness as a public health issue: the impact of loneliness on health care utilization among older adults. K. Gerst-Emerson and J. Jayawardhana. Am J Public Health. 2015 May;105(5):1013-9. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302427. Epub 2015 Mar 19. [Abstract: OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine whether loneliness is associated with higher health care utilization among older adults in the United States. METHODS: We used panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (2008 and 2012) to examine the long-term impact of loneliness on health care use. The sample was limited to community-dwelling persons in the United States aged 60 years and older. We used negative binomial regression models to determine the impact of loneliness on physician visits and hospitalizations. RESULTS: Under 2 definitions of loneliness, we found that a sizable proportion of those aged 60 years and older in the United States reported loneliness. Regression results showed that chronic loneliness (those lonely both in 2008 and 4 years later) was significantly and positively associated with physician visits (β = 0.075, SE = 0.034). Loneliness was not significantly associated with hospitalizations. CONCLUSIONS: Loneliness is a significant public health concern among elders. In addition to easing a potential source of suffering, the identification and targeting of interventions for lonely elders may significantly decrease physician visits and health care costs.]) and http://pps.sagepub.com/content/10/2/227.full (Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality. A Meta-Analytic Review. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, Mark Baker, Tyler Harris, David Stephenson.doi: 10.1177/1745691614568352. Perspectives on Psychological Science March 2015 vol. 10 no. 2 227-237. [Abstract: Actual and perceived social isolation are both associated with increased risk for early mortality. In this meta-analytic review, our objective is to establish the overall and relative magnitude of social isolation and loneliness and to examine possible moderators. We conducted a literature search of studies (January 1980 to February 2014) using MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, and Google Scholar. The included studies provided quantitative data on mortality as affected by loneliness, social isolation, or living alone. Across studies in which several possible confounds were statistically controlled for, the weighted average effect sizes were as follows: social isolation odds ratio (OR) = 1.29, loneliness OR = 1.26, and living alone OR = 1.32, corresponding to an average of 29%, 26%, and 32% increased likelihood of mortality, respectively. We found no differences between measures of objective and subjective social isolation. Results remain consistent across gender, length of follow-up, and world region, but initial health status has an influence on the findings. Results also differ across participant age, with social deficits being more predictive of death in samples with an average age younger than 65 years. Overall, the influence of both objective and subjective social isolation on risk for mortality is comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality. [...] ]); further: https://medium.com/digital-culturist/stop-saying-technology-is-causing-social-isolation-1e004de63a5e#.gs2eql2h6 (Stop saying technology is causing social isolation. October 18, 2015)>
No comments:
Post a Comment