Loneliness 'increases risk of a stroke for older people', study warns

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A new study has issued a stark warning that social isolation can increase the chances of a serious heart condition in the elderly.New research has discovered that individuals over 50 who experienced chronic loneliness had a 56 per cent higher chance of suffering a stroke compared to those who consistently reported not feeling lonely.Dr Yenee Soh, the lead author of the study from Harvard T.

H. Chan School of Public Health in the US, stated: "Loneliness is increasingly considered a major public health issue. Our findings further highlight why that is."Especially when experienced chronically, our study suggests loneliness may play an important role in stroke incidence, which is already one of the leading causes of long-term disability and mortality worldwide."While previous studies have linked loneliness to a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, few have explored its impact on stroke risk specifically.

The latest findings are among the first to investigate the relationship between changes in loneliness and stroke risk over time.The team used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) spanning from 2006 to 2018 to assess this association.

Between 2006 and 2008, 12,161 participants - all adults aged 50 and above who had never had a stroke - responded to questions on the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, allowing the researchers to create loneliness scores.Four years later, 8,936 participants who remained in the study answered the same questions again.The study divided participants into four loneliness categories based on their initial and follow-up loneliness scores: "consistently low" for those with low scores both times, "remitting" for high initial but low follow-up scores, "recent onset" for low initial