A recent study done in the United Kingdom found that social isolation creates a higher death risk for the elderly, according to BBC.
The study participants included 6,500 British men and women over the age of 52 who were isolated from family and friends. Researchers found that being isolated from loved ones corresponded with a 26 percent higher risk of death over seven years.
According to Age UK, an organization dedicated to the health and care of the elderly in the United Kingdom, the cuts being made to services that help the elderly are not helping the issue.
The study went on to say that those who were isolated were more likely to be older and unmarried. They were also more likely to have diseases that would negatively affect movement such as arthritis and lunch disease.
Those who identified themselves as “feeling lonely” had a higher probability of being female as well as having a broader scope of health issues such as depression.
Further research, which took into account pre-existing diseases, proved that isolation was more important in determining death risk than feeling alone.
However, according to professor Andrew Steptoe, emotional connection and not feeling lonely can be an asset.
"Social connections can provide emotional support and warmth which is important but they also provide things like advice, making sure people take their medication and provide support in helping them to do things.” said Steptoe, the director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College London and leader of the study. “"There's been such an increase in people living alone. In the last 15 years, the number of 55 to 64-year-olds living alone has increased by 50 percent.”
Director of Age UK Michelle Mitchell compounded Steptoe’s sentiments. She also condemned the cuts that have affected care for senior citizens in the UK.
"Across the country day care centres, often the only regular social life that many older people enjoy, are closing, social care support which can enable older people to leave the house is being cut down to the bare minimum, and too many older people are hidden behind closed doors struggling to cope,” she said.
