Are loneliness and social isolation equal threats to health and well-being? An outcome-wide longitudinal approach.

ABSTRACT: The detrimental effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and well-being outcomes are well documented. In response, governments, corporations, and community-based organizations have begun leveraging tools to create interventions and policies aimed at reducing loneliness and social isolation at scale. However, these efforts are frequently hampered by a key knowledge gap: when attempting to improve specific health and well-being outcomes, decision-makers are often unsure whether to target loneliness, social isolation, or both. Filling this knowledge gap will inform the development and refinement of effective interventions. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (13,752 participants (59% women and 41% men, mean [SD] age = 67 [10] years)), we examined how changes in lonelin

SUBMITTER: Hong JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10400921 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature