A UK Biobank study of 277,000 middle-aged and older adults found that people who are both lonely and socially isolated get noticeably fewer disease-free years after 50, with men losing the most to mental illness.
Humans are social animals. Cut off from friends, or merely feeling cut off, and the body pays for it too.
Isolation and loneliness are not the same thing
Isolation is objective: how many friends and family you actually have around you. Loneliness is subjective: how alone you feel. You can be at a party and still feel nobody gets you, and you can live by yourself and feel perfectly fine.
UK Biobank followed 277,000 people aged 40 to 69. All of them entered the study free of seven conditions: diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, dementia, cancer, depression and anxiety.
Which years go missing
Counting from age 50, people who were both isolated and lonely had fewer healthy, disease-free years than those with plenty of social contact.
For physical illness: women lost 2.4 years, men 1.7. For depression and anxiety: women lost 3.7 years, men 5.8.
In other words, loneliness hits men harder on the mental side and women slightly harder on the physical side. Lu Qi of Tulane University, one of the authors, said men are more susceptible to loneliness, while women live longer and have a gender advantage on certain diseases.
What is striking is that good habits — better diet, more exercise, more sleep, no smoking — helped those who were isolated but not those who felt lonely.
So do not just book a check-up. Look after the emotional side as well.
Why it matters
This turns 'talk to more people' from a comforting line into a health recommendation on a par with quitting smoking or exercising: your social state can be measured in years of life. And good habits rescue isolation but not loneliness — having company and feeling understood are two separate bills.
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