FEELING LONELY IS A RISK

LONELINESS INCREASES EARLY DEATH RISK IN HEART PATIENTS, A STUDY FOUND.

13,463 PATIENTS with ischaemic heart disease, arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), heart failure, or heart valve disease were investigated in the study to find if poor poor social network was associated with worse outcomes.

PARTICIPANTS WERE patients discharged from April 2013 to April 2014 from five heart centres in Denmark.

THEY ANSWERED a questionnaire about their physical and mental health, lifestyle factors such as smoking, and social support.

LONELINESS WAS associated with a doubled mortality risk in women and nearly doubled risk in men.

FEELING LONELY was associated with poor outcomes in all patients regardless of their type of heart disease, and even after adjusting for age, level of education, other diseases, body mass index, smoking, and alcohol intake.

BOTH MEN and women who felt lonely were three times more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and had a significantly lower quality of life than those who did not feel lonely.

Previous research showed that loneliness and social isolation are linked with coronary heart disease and stroke, but it was not investigated. –ANNE CHRISTENSEN, Copenhagen University Hospital