Analysis From 113 Countries Shows The Harrowing Extent of Loneliness We Live With
From:
Science Alert
By Carly Cassella
February
11, 2022 -- More humans are alive today than ever before, and yet around the
world, people are still feeling alone a lot of the time.
Even before the global pandemic hit,
a sweeping meta analysis has found chronic
or severe loneliness was a common and overlooked experience in numerous
nations.
Past studies in the industrialized world have
suggested loneliness is on the rise, but without historical data on the issue,
it's hard to say how present-day numbers compare over time or across
geographical regions.
"It's a commonly held belief that
around 1 in 12 people experience loneliness at a level that can lead to serious
health problems, however, the source of such data are unclear and researchers
have never established how widespread loneliness is on a global
scale," says epidemiologist Melody Ding from the University of
Sydney.
"That is why we were interested in
conducting the review."
Ding and her colleagues have therefore
pulled together 57 observational studies on loneliness from 113 countries or
territories between 2000 and 2019.
The authors hope to use the findings as
a pre-pandemic baseline to monitor feelings of lonesomeness going forward.
Because loneliness is associated with
mental, emotional, and physical well-being, the findings could help reveal
emerging issues in public health that must be better addressed.
Global loneliness estimates were mostly
available for adolescents, and findings among 77 nations suggest the issue can
range from 9.2 percent in South-East Asia to 14.4 percent in the Eastern
Mediterranean region.
Unfortunately, for adults, there was
only enough data for the meta analysis to hone in on the European region.
In this corner of the world, the authors
once again found geographical differences. Northern European nations had the
lowest rates of loneliness, with only 2.9 percent of young adults experiencing
the negative emotion and 2.7 percent of middle-aged adults feeling the same.
Older adults, over the age of 60, experienced lonesomeness at a higher rate of
5.3 percent.
Eastern European countries, on the other
hand, showed more signs of loneliness than anywhere else in Europe. Young
adults in Eastern Europe reported feelings of loneliness at a rate of 7.5
percent, while middle aged adults reported feelings of loneliness at a rate of
9.6 percent. Older adults in this part of Europe, meanwhile, were the loneliest
of the lot, coming in at a worrisome 21.3 percent.
The data can't tell us why Eastern
Europe appears to have a more lonely populace overall, but one study included
in the review suggests the effect is due to worse health outcomes, healthcare
services, and social support.
Welfare systems and social security
schemes are commonly put forward as explanations for reduced loneliness, and
northern European countries tend to excel in these areas. Further research will
be needed to confirm the hypothesis.
"Understanding loneliness as a
global health issue requires data from most countries – however, data are
lacking for most regions outside of Europe," the authors write.
"Meanwhile, the lack of repeated
measurements limited our conclusions about temporal trends."
Meaning we have no idea how these
numbers compare to decades gone by. If the problem of loneliness is worsening,
it's important public health experts and policymakers know so they can take
appropriate action.
Never has that been more important than
now. The World Health Organization has warned that the social isolation measures keeping the
dangerous SARS-CoV-2 virus at
bay will also probably lead to increased levels of loneliness, depression, harmful alcohol and drug use, and self-harm or
suicidal behavior.
The current review could find no
low-income countries with nationally representative data on loneliness in
adults, due to limited resources and competing priorities.
These major data gaps are leaving us
blind to a common and global issue, which can have impacts on mental health and
physical health at all ages. Social isolation and loneliness have actually been
associated with a rise in the risk of early death, on a scale equivalent to
smoking cigarettes. Yet it's unclear what mechanism is driving that fatal
relationship.
Census data in the United States has
found more young and middle-aged people today are living alone than in previous
years. But in the European review it seems older adults, over the age of 60,
are those most likely to suffer feelings of severe loneliness.
The differing results among nations
suggest the age pattern of loneliness might be context specific, but we need
more data to say for certain.
When our lives literally depend on
connecting with others, it's shocking that more research on loneliness and
isolation hasn't been done.
Now, the global pandemic has made us
aware of the issue like never before, and researchers like Ding are scrambling
to make sense of the little information we have so we can make informed
decisions about the future.
"A public health approach to
loneliness means confronting the social and structural factors that influence
risk of loneliness across the life course, including poverty, education,
transport, inequalities, and housing, and implementing policies to address
them," a team of Irish and UK public health experts writes in
an editorial linked to the new research.
"It is important to facilitate
healthy social choices, making it easier to connect with others in the
community, change work environments, and increase opportunities for building
trust and social capital."
The study was published in BMJ
[atThe prevalence of
loneliness across 113 countries: systematic review and meta-analysis | The BMJ]
.
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