10/11/2023 6:13 p.m., updated 10/11/2023 9:14 p.m
Humans are social animals. In order to develop successfully and healthily, contact with other people especially for older people is essential. Researchers at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, found that loneliness even affects the life expectancy of older people.
Older people who have no contact with other people and said they never receive visitors had a 39% higher risk of death than people of the same gender, age and health status but with more social ties. According to scientists, both objective loneliness, which comes from isolation from physical relationships, and subjective loneliness, which we maintain with close friends and family, contribute to a higher risk of death.
“It wasn’t what we expected. But it seems clear that there is a threshold effect: once you start seeing your friends and family monthly, the risk remains fairly stable. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a monthly visit, a weekly visit, several times a week or every day,” says cardiologist Jason Gill, one of the study’s authors, for the El País website.
{{#values}}{{#ap}}{{/ap}}{{^ap}}{{/ap}}{{/values}}
The study used data from 458,146 adults with an average age of 56.5 years registered in the UK Biobank database and followed them for 13 years. Participants without group activities, living alone and not having frequent visitors are at higher risk of death, the team found in the study published Friday (10/11) in the journal BMC Medicine.
“Each of these three factors was associated with a higher risk of death, but people who said they never received visitors stood out. The combination increased the chance of death by up to 39%,” says Harmish Foster, another author of the study.
Loneliness kills
Researchers explain that behavior, habits and mental state worsen in the face of isolation. “It may be that friends and family provide people with a certain level of support and make it easier for them to access health services,” emphasizes Foster.
Another theory suggests that alcohol and cigarette consumption increases with loneliness, while physical activity and talking to other people decreases all risk factors for the development of chronic diseases that reduce quality of life and can even lead to death.
Follow the Health Editor on Instagram and stay up to date on everything on the topic!
Have you read all the health warnings and reports today? Click here.