May 15, 2024
Why Loneliness is Bad for You
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Education Series by Randy Hebert, MD, Medical Director
The Covid pandemic created a “loneliness epidemic” for many older adults who isolated for months and sometimes years.
New research is demonstrating that loneliness is very bad for health—often as bad as smoking.
There are things we can do to help, however. Regular social activities are a simple and effective way to improve loneliness. For this reason, Community LIFE provides many activities for our participants—games, music, outings, etc.
Taking care of ourselves is not just a case of taking medicines. Sometimes the “simple things” are as or even more important.
Wang, F., Gao, Y., Han, Z. et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 90 cohort studies of social isolation, loneliness and mortality. Nat Hum Behav (2023).
