THURSDAY, June 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) — I don’t usually think of myself as a lonely person, but there are days when that feeling hits me.
If you’re one of those people, new research finds that even a temporary loss of connection with others could have an impact on your physical health.
“A lot of research has focused on loneliness as a binary trait – you’re either lonely or you’re not. But based on our own experiences, we know that this isn’t the case. Some days are worse than others, and even some times of the day,” explained Dakota Witzel, lead author of the study.
“If we can understand changes in everyday loneliness, we can begin to understand how that affects our day-to-day and long-term health,” said Witzel, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State’s Center for Healthy Aging.
As Witzel’s group noted, long-term loneliness is a known health risk factor, so much so that in 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy labeled loneliness a public health crisis. He noted elevated rates of depression and other mental health issues associated with loneliness, as well as a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia in older adults.
But what about those more temporary moments or days of solitude?
For the study, Witzel’s group looked at data from 1,538 middle-aged Americans who participated in the National Survey of Everyday Life Experiences (NSDE), led by David Almeida, professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University and senior author of the STUDY.
NSDE interviewed participants by phone and tracked their emotional ups and downs every day for eight days. The team also tracked any physical health issues participants might have.
Witzel and her research group found that people who felt less lonely on a given day were less likely to experience everyday physical symptoms like fatigue and headaches.
Even when these symptoms occurred, they were less severe on less lonely days than on more lonely days.
The study was recently published in the journal Neurology.
“These findings suggest that the dynamics of daily loneliness may be important in understanding and addressing the health effects of loneliness,” Almeida said in a Penn State news release. “Increasing feelings of social connectedness, even for just one day, may reduce health symptoms for that day. This kind of daily focus may provide a manageable and hopeful micro-intervention for people living with loneliness.”
For more information
Find out how loneliness affects your health from the American Medical Association.
Source: Pennsylvania State University, news release, June 13, 2024
