Social Isolation Linked to Earlier Death

Older people who live alone and don’t interact much with family or friends are at a substantially greater risk of dying prematurely. The study of 6,500 people over the age of 52 was conducted for seven years in the U.K. The individuals who were socially isolated were 26% more likely to die during the study.
This held up whether or not the volunteers considered themselves lonely. The study was not able to determine whether illness resulted in greater isolation or whether living alone with little or no social contact exacerbated illness.
[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online March 25, 2013]
The powerful effects of social connection and our social networks were the topic of an hour-long radio interview we did with Dr. Nicholas Christakis, co-author with James Fowler of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.