The study authors found that loneliness can affect mental health, causing depression, anxiety and insomnia. However, for a number of conditions previously linked to loneliness, including stroke, chronic liver disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, schizophrenia and even early death, the results showed that the causes may be different.
To confirm their findings, the researchers turned to large biomedical databases containing information on hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. They focused on 30 of the 56 diseases previously linked to loneliness. The researchers then statistically analyzed the data for 26 of these diseases. They found that many of the diseases thought to be caused by or exacerbated by loneliness were actually caused by other factors. Most of them occurred in conjunction with loneliness, rather than caused by it, the team found.
The team concluded that loneliness appears to cause or lead to a range of mental illnesses, and that it may play a role in some other problems, such as the development of inflammation or changes in hormone levels, which can lead to a variety of problems.
They point out that more research is needed to determine which diseases are truly linked to loneliness or social isolation, and which are merely symptomatic.
“Loneliness appears to be more of a predictor of disease than a direct cause,” said study co-author Jihui Zhang of Guangzhou Medical University. “Instead, socioeconomic factors, lifestyle choices and genetic predisposition may be driving the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.”
Their study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Source: Medical Express
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2024-09-23 15:16:07