Researchers found that seniors who feel isolated or lack companionship are more likely to experience a decline in health or death in a six-year period when compared to their socially engaged counterparts.
The University of California, San Francisco study administered a survey, which measured loneliness, to 1604 seniors, with a mean age of 71 years. Over the course of six years, researchers then measured these seniors’ health outcomes and found that 22.8% of those who reported feelings of loneliness, feelings of social isolation, or lack of companionship had passed away during this period. 14.2% of the socially satisfied seniors had passed away during the same time period. The lonely seniors were also more likely to have experienced increased functional decline. 24.8% of the lonely older adults experienced a decline in their ability to perform activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and eating, while 12.5% of the non-lonely seniors experienced a decline.
The study was among the largest ever conducted on the topic and one of the first to emphasize loneliness as a separate condition from general depression. Researchers controlled for demographic variables, depression, comorbidities, and other health and functional measures.
The researchers were not surprised by the results and say that the decline may be due to the biological stress of loneliness or the behaviors caused by loneliness. “I have a patient who’s losing weight, and point blank, she says to me, ‘I’m losing weight because eating is a social experience for me and now I’m eating alone and it’s not enjoyable,'” study author Dr. Carla Perissinotto said. “That’s a huge part of why she’s declining.”
Researchers emphasized that this study cements the importance of social engagement among seniors, especially with others in their own generation. Seniors who are not alone may still feel isolated by being unable to connect with their children and grandchildren due to generational or lifestyle differences.
Read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Loneliness Lethal for Seniors, UCSF Study Says, or the article Loneliness in Older Persons, A Predictor of Functional Decline and Death in the Archives of Internal Medicine about the study.
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