We can all agree that being lonely is bad. But apparently, science shows it’s really, really bad. Indeed, being lonely is so dangerous to your health that its equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And it gets worse: we’re in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, meaning that the health of millions is at risk.

In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart ask two questions: is there actually a loneliness epidemic? And does it make sense to compare loneliness to something as bad for you as smoking cigarettes?

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Show notes

* The US Surgeon General’s report into “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”

* Articles on the loneliness epidemic from the BBC, NPR, the BBC again, the New York Times, the New York Times again, and Science magazine

* 2023 article in The Times (London) that makes the 15-cigarettes-a-day comparison

* The 2017 Jo Cox report on “Combatting Loneliness”

* 2010 meta-analysis of social relationships and mortality risk

* American Time Use Survey, 2003-2020

* Meta-Gallup poll from 2022 on “The Global State of Social Connections”

* Are US older adults getting lonelier (2019 study)? What about “emerging adults” (2021 meta-analysis)?

* Comparison between younger-old people and older-old people on their loneliness levels

* 2017 review study on the health effects of loneliness

* 2023: systematic review no.1, systematic review no.2, both into the effects of loneliness on health

* 2005 study on the health effects of smoking tobacco

Credits

* The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.

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Episode 35: The loneliness epidemic

The Studies Show