Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – Loneliness affects the 15 to 24 years older more than any other age group in Australia and is thought to be more severe, in terms of their overall physical and mental health, according to a study at Monash University.
For the 15–24 year age group, loneliness was associated with the largest reduction in health utility of the age groups studied, decreasing health utility by 0.079 points.
Social isolation was more common in older Australians but the strongest association with worse health-related quality of life was in women aged 25 to 44 years.
Social isolation alone was associated with a 0.020-point reduction in health utility score and loneliness alone was associated with a 0.061-point reduction in health utility score compared with those with neither condition in all age groups. The loneliness-associated decline was about three times as large.
The largest reduction, of 0.102 points, was found among those who were lonely and socially isolated.
The combined impact was greater than the sum of the separate effects, indicating a possible interaction between loneliness and social isolation.
Lead researcher Dr Fikru Rizal, a research fellow with the Health Economics Group at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said the results challenged widely held perceptions about loneliness.
Dr Rizal indicated that loneliness is commonly regarded as a concern primarily affecting older people, however, their findings showed that its association with reduced health-related quality of life was strongest among young adults aged 15 to 24.
He pointed out that loneliness is subjective and is a result of how satisfied we feel with our social relationships, whilst social isolation is about objectively having lesser relationships and lower number of frequent social contact.
“You can be surrounded by people and still feel deeply lonely, just as someone with relatively few social connections may not necessarily feel lonely.
“This reinforces the importance of recognising loneliness across the lifespan and designing responses that reflect the different ways people experience loneliness and social isolation.”
Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos, senior author of the study from the Health Economics Group at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said measuring how loneliness and social isolation affect quality of life was particularly valuable for policymakers and health economists.
She indicated that quantifying the effects of loneliness on health-related quality of life enables us to compare its impact with that of other health conditions. It also provides valuable evidence for evaluating whether interventions aimed at tackling loneliness deliver value for money.
Professor Mihalopoulos also pointed out that the estimates can be applied in economic analysis to assist in finding the potential health gains from programs that are aimed at loneliness and social isolation and support better decisions about where healthcare resources require investment.
Researchers of the study stressed that though the evaluation consisted of a wide range of factors, the they noted that other factors were unable to be measured also had the possibility to contribute to the relationship.
The impact of loneliness has extensive impacts particularly in industrialised countries and in big cities where in spite of the large numbers of people, many tend to more and more isolated.
