Loneliness and Longevity

According to a study reported by Reader’s Digest, lonely people seem more likely to die of heart disease than do the socially active, according to a study conducted by doctors in Sweden. The study allowed for medical and life-style risk factors-age, smoking, physical inactivity, and signs of heart disease-and found that the subjects with few social contacts had a 40 percent greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than the rest did. “Loneliness,” said Newsweek magazine in reporting a similar study, “can speed your demise no matter how conscientiously you care for your body.’’ One study of elderly heart-attack patients found that those with two or more close associates enjoyed twice the one-year survival rate of those who were completely alone.

“We 1 Ann Landers column, clipped, undated, in my files. 2 Dr. Kristina Orth-Gomer and Professor Jeffrey Johnson, Reader’s Digest, April 1987, 36.