Britain’s loneliness epidemic
This really powerful article sets out graphically the challenges facing the isolated elderly – clearly a far bigger proportion of the population and more acutely isolated in many rural communities.
A flurry of research has demonstrated that lonely people face serious health risks. Some reports have even suggested that being lonely is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day; others that it can increase the risk of dementia. Lauder agrees: “My research has shown that those who are lonely are more likely to smoke and be obese,” he says. “US researchers have shown that those who are lonely are less likely to take regular exercise. If you are lonely you are more likely to have a heart attack, and if you experience a heart attack when you are lonely, you are less likely to survive it. You are double or triple as likely to die. But although there is more research, this hasn’t translated into policy.”
One reason for this may be because loneliness is such a complex issue. For a start, it is subjective, and not necessarily linked to physical isolation: “You could have 10 relatives who live near you,” says Lauder, “but you could still be lonely.”
To help effectively, charities must distinguish between emotional loneliness – when you miss one person, a partner or friend after a bereavement, for instance – and social loneliness, when you no longer feel part of the group, says Ferguson. Cacioppo makes further divisions into situational loneliness – when circumstances such as family or health problems stop you feeling connected to others – and chronic loneliness, when feelings of loneliness “become uncoupled from the situations that aroused them”.