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The negative effects of loneliness on physical and mental health are well known. Recently, a study showed that loneliness increases the incidence of 30 types of diseases.
Loneliness is a subjective feeling of social disconnection, and is known to be related to various health problems such as depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but it is still unknown whether the connection between loneliness and various diseases corresponds to a causal relationship.
Professor Rucci’s team at Tulane University in the United States investigated the relationship between loneliness and the development of various diseases among 476,100 people registered in the UK Biobank, with an average age of 56.5 years. The research team followed the participants’ genetic history, lifestyle habits, and hospitalization data for 12.2 years.
The study found that loneliness was associated with an increased risk of 13 out of 14 disease categories and 30 out of 56 individual diseases. The diseases most closely associated with loneliness were post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, among the 30 diseases related to loneliness, 26 diseases with genetic data for further analysis were analyzed, and 20 diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, chronic liver disease, and chronic kidney disease, were found to have a non-causal relationship with loneliness. There was a connection. The research team explained that this suggests that loneliness may be a potential surrogate indicator for predicting these diseases rather than a direct cause of these diseases.
“This study shows that managing risk factors associated with loneliness can lead to long-term health improvements,” the research team said. “Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking loneliness and disease.”
Meanwhile, to reduce loneliness, it is better to be active in social activities. In particular, you need to ▲help others, ▲find and participate in new groups, and ▲talk a lot with people. When you help someone else, you feel less lonely because you feel like you are needed by that person. Helping others with your experience and talents can increase your self-esteem and give you a sense of accomplishment. Also, it is good to join a hobby group that you have always been interested in, such as dancing, calligraphy, or crafts, and do fun activities and meet a lot of people.
This study was recently published in the scientific journal ‘Nature Human Behavior’.
