Health
Related: About this forumSocial isolation 'increases death risk in older people'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21929197Social isolation is associated with a higher risk of death in older people regardless of whether they consider themselves lonely, research suggests.
A study of 6,500 UK men and women aged over 52 found that being isolated from family and friends was linked with a 26% higher death risk over seven years.
Whether or not participants felt lonely did not alter the impact of social isolation on health.
Age UK says cuts to services for older people are compounding the problem.
LiberalLoner
(9,761 posts)One last holiday, etc. I think staying alive is partly a matter of the will.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Are more likely to be socially isolated, so I'm not convinced there's a causal link.
Warpy
(111,233 posts)They needed to start with "why are older people who are more likely to die socially isolated?"
There's nothing like the double whammy of age and infirmity to do it, no matter if you're an extrovert or introvert.
That's another thing they needed to consider. In the healthy, isolated population, how many were introverts and were they more likely to die?
Oh, and what about older women? Talk about social isolation! Nobody wants a post menopausal woman around.
Another thing they failed to clarify is whether the isolated men had been recently widowed versus long time bachelors. Loss of a spouse is also a determinant for early death in both sexes.
This is a bogus study on so many grounds. They didn't ask any of the pertinent questions and only studied males.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)And some *suicides* are passive, in that people just give up.