Loneliness Trumps Obesity in Danger to Elderly
Researchers looking into the impact of feelings of isolation on older people found that loneliness can be twice as unhealthy as obesity.
Researchers looking into the impact of feelings of isolation on older people found that loneliness can be twice as unhealthy as obesity.
Ian Sample writes at The Guardian:
The scientists tracked more than 2,000 people aged 50 and over and found that the loneliest were nearly twice as likely to die during the six-year study than the least lonely.
Compared with the average person in the study, those who reported being lonely had a 14% greater risk of dying. The figure means that loneliness has around twice the impact on an early death as obesity. Poverty increased the risk of an early death by 19%.
The findings point to a coming crisis as the population ages and people increasingly live alone or far from their families. A study of loneliness in older Britons in 2012 found that more than a fifth felt lonely all the time, and a quarter became more lonely over five years. Half of those who took part in the survey said their loneliness was worse at weekends, and three-quarters suffered more at night.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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