Isolation is Harmful to Your Health

Isolation and having very few friends are harmful to your health.   Lack of social relationships with other people may actually hasten death. Over two decades ago (1988), after reviewing five studies on social support and health,  sociologist James S. House concluded that “Social relationships, or the relative lack thereof, constitute a major risk factor for health—rivaling the effect of well established health risk factors such as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids, obesity and physical activity” (House, Landis, and Umberson; Science). Recently, in Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam noted that the quantity social relationships in the United States have steadily declined since the  1960’s. Trends reveal more mobile, dual-career families with less time and fewer social ties to friends and communities.   In some studies, up to 20% of people are isolated and lonely.

A recent (2010) analysis of  142 studies on the effects of social relationships and death discovered a 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger social relationships. This finding remained consistent across age, sex, initial health status, cause of death, and follow-up period. The strongest association for survival was social integration.  The entire study is online if you would like to read it.