Loneliness is linked to a range of health conditions
Marc Brussels RF/Alamy
The idea that loneliness leads to specific health conditions is now being questioned: although loneliness has been associated with a range of adverse physical health outcomes, including an increased risk of premature death, it may only be a correlate of many of the conditions previously thought to be caused by loneliness.
“Loneliness appears to act as a symptom rather than a direct cause of disease,” said Zhang Jihui, a researcher at Guangzhou Medical University. “Rather, socioeconomic factors, lifestyle choices and genetic predispositions may increase the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.”
Social connections are essential to our mental health and thriving, yet loneliness – the painful feeling that comes from being disconnected from others – is affecting an increasing number of people around the world.
To learn more about how this impacts health, Zhang and his colleagues analyzed data from several biomedical databases, including medical information for 476,100 people in the UK, 16,000 in China, and 14,000 in the US. They found that participants who reported feeling lonely had an increased risk of 30 out of 56 individual diseases, ranging from cancer to digestive disorders.
The researchers then conducted a second statistical analysis of 26 of the 30 symptoms, focusing on the subset of participants for whom genetic data was available. The results revealed that most symptoms were not actually caused by loneliness; health problems such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes only occurred in tandem with loneliness. However, loneliness may still play a role in causing six symptoms: depression, hypothyroidism, asthma, sleep apnea, substance abuse, and hearing loss.
According to Yu He of Guangzhou Medical University, the findings have important implications for real-world interventions. “Addressing loneliness is important, but it is not the only factor in preventing the disease,” she says. “Public health authorities should also focus on improving mental health services and promoting healthy lifestyles.”
David Sbarra of the University of Arizona said the new study “should prompt us to think about how we should think about the public health goal of reducing loneliness and improving human health.”
“Certainly loneliness itself is very debilitating and appears to be causally related to the development of depression, but in terms of its relationship to health, some of the most highly valued findings in the field need to be reconsidered,” Sbarra said. “It’s important to understand where causation might lie and where correlation exists.”
Chan, Ho and their colleagues plan to investigate the biological mechanisms behind their findings, such as how loneliness affects stress hormones and inflammation. They also want to conduct studies in groups of people in other parts of the world to see whether the current findings, which are based mainly on data from people in the UK, are valid.
Sbarra adds that to truly determine whether loneliness causes certain symptoms, researchers need to study whether social connections lead to improved health. “Of course, it would be really remarkable if there were intervention studies that showed that reducing loneliness could improve health indicators,” he says. “There are very few examples to suggest that this is really possible.”
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