Loneliness strongly linked to poorer mental health and wellbeing, study finds
Source: University of Bristol
People who feel lonely are much more likely to experience poorer mental health and lower wellbeing, a new collaborative study led by the University of Bristol, Nesta and Amsterdam UMC has found. Loneliness was also found to be linked with worse general health, including experiencing multiple health conditions. Social isolation is associated with lower wellbeing, too.
Loneliness is increasingly recognised as a major public health issue, with growing evidence connecting it to poorer health. However, it is unclear whether loneliness itself contributes to poor health or whether these links are driven by other factors.
The study, in association with the universities of Oxford and Manchester, combined evidence from three different research methods, including observational analysis, sibling comparisons, and Mendelian randomisation, a genetics-based approach, to build a clearer understanding of these relationships.
Using data from UK Biobank and large-scale genome-wide association studies, the researchers investigated how both loneliness - the quality of a person's social relationships; and social isolation - the number of social connections, relate to health and wellbeing. The study is published in Nature Communications today [15 July].
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