People who feel lonely are much more likely to experience poorer mental health and lower well-being, a new collaborative study led by the University of Bristol, Nesta and Amsterdam UMC has found. Loneliness was also found to be linked with worse general health, including experiencing multiple health conditions. Social isolation is associated with lower well-being, too.
Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a major public health issue, with growing evidence connecting it to poorer health. However, it is unclear whether loneliness itself contributes to poor health or whether these links are driven by other factors.
The study, in association with the universities of Oxford and Manchester, combined evidence from three different research methods, including observational analysis, sibling comparisons and Mendelian randomization, a genetics-based approach, to build a clearer understanding of these relationships.
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