Many times we associate the loneliness to the negative feelings produced by isolation
However, today we know that it can also have very negative material repercussions. In fact, the feeling of prolonged loneliness can increase the risk of death by 26%, a percentage that increases up to 32% in cases in which social isolation is real. These are the data that psychologists from Brigham Young University have published in the magazine Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Loneliness may increase risk of death, study finds
The study carried out by these researchers is a meta-analysis of different research in the field of social psychology which aims to find relationships between loneliness (real and perceived) and mortality patterns. What they found is what appears to be a correlation between social isolation and the risk of death that is as strong as it can be. large scale repercussions
Furthermore, the results of the meta-analysis not only speak of an increased risk of death in those people who, due to their habits, come into little contact with other people (that is, they show cases of real social isolation) but the same thing happens in people that regardless of the number of real interactions with others and the time dedicated to them, they feel alone. Chronic loneliness, whether real or subjective, carries certain dangers.
That is why addressing this problem is more complicated than one would expect, since it is not only necessary to intervene on the number of real interactions with others, but also on the quality of these relationships
Both the subjective and objective factors associated with loneliness may be affecting our health in various ways: producing episodes of stress, negatively affecting the functioning of the immune system, producing states of blood pressure that favor the appearance of inflammation, leading to social dynamics. negative, etc. All these factors interact with each other and feed each other, and that is why, although they do not have to translate into the occurrence of fatal accidents, they wear down the health of the organism causing you to age faster and complications of all kinds to appear.
Virtually all the benefits associated with a life full of satisfying relationships can serve to give you an idea of the negative aspects of the lack of physical and emotional contact with others.
Loneliness: a problem that spreads in the Western world
These conclusions are especially worrying if we take into account that in Western countries There are more and more people living alone or without having strong ties to any community Furthermore, new forms of communication through digital media do not encourage the emergence of sustained face-to-face relationships, and there are even new forms of work that require no more company than a laptop and a drink.
Furthermore, a large part of the population at risk of social isolation is precisely those in a more delicate state of health: the older people These people may find themselves at a point where the family lives far away, contact with co-workers has been lost, and there are hardly any social activities that are aimed at them.
Providing these older people (and ourselves) with contexts in which to develop diverse social bonds may be one of the fundamental keys to improving people’s health on a large scale and preventing certain fatal accidents from occurring. The result, furthermore, would be the construction of a well-cohesive society, with all the advantages that this entails.
