Chronic loneliness may significantly raise older adults' risk of stroke, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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.
" Yenee Soh, lead author, research associate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences The study was published June 24 in eClinicalMedicine. While previous research has linked loneliness to higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, few have examined the impact on stroke risk specifically. This study is one of the first to examine the association between loneliness changes and stroke risk over time.
Using 2006-2018 data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the researchers assessed the association between changes in loneliness and stroke incidence over time. During 2006-2008, 12,161 participants—all adults ages 50 and above who never had a stroke—responded to questions on the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, from which the researchers created summary loneliness scores. Four years later (2010-2012), 8,936 participants who remained in the study responded to the same questions again.
The researchers then placed the participants into one of four groups according to their loneliness scores acros.