‘THE FIGHT AGAINST SOCIAL ISOLATION REMAINS IN ITS INFANCY’
At the end of February, just before the isolations and quarantines began, the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was released: Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults.
Seniors who are lonely or socially isolated have a higher risk of heart disease, depression, and even death, reported the Committee on the Health and Medical Dimensions of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults. The study, sponsored by the AARP Foundation, also said the health system was not doing enough to counter these effects.
Loneliness is not only damaging to people who are older, it can lead to an increased risk of dementia—by 20 percent, according to a 2019 study in Ageing Research Reviews. A study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychology showed loneliness worsened cognitive abilities over the years. And a 2020 study in Nature found loneliness and social isolation affected physical performance in older adults.
The pandemic has sharply raised awareness of these dangers. While they’re often considered together, the terms social isolation and loneliness are different problems that may need different approaches.
Social isolation is objective—one lacks relationships; a personal network is small, or a person has lost a spouse. Loneliness is subjective—one lacks positive relationships; a personal network may be strained or a family group unhappy, or a person lives with someone not attuned to their needs. A person with few friends may not be lonely, and a person who feels lonely may not be socially isolated.
A recent study in Public Health Frontiers modeled what it calls “the COVID-19 Social Connectivity Paradox”—the more interaction an older adult has, the more health benefits from social interaction, but the greater the chance of contracting the virus—and vice versa.
“Despite the progress made combatting social isolation and loneliness by organizations across the healthcare sector, aging services network, and public health system, the fight against social isolation remains in its infancy,” the authors say.
“And, in the new era of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative and effective efforts to blunt the impacts of social isolation and bolster social connectivity are more critical than ever before.”
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