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Loneliness Linked to Worse Health and Higher Medical Costs, Study Finds
Euronews ^ | 9/4/2025 | Gabriela Galvin

Posted on 09/03/2025 9:32:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Four in 10 Britons said they were lonely at least sometimes in a new survey tracking the health costs associated with loneliness.

Loneliness is a common problem – and it’s expensive to health systems, according to a new analysis from the United Kingdom.

People who are often lonely cost the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) up to £885 (€1,024) more annually than their more sociable peers, according to the estimates, which were published in the journal PLOS One.

Researchers surveyed more than 23,000 Britons on their levels of loneliness, well-being, and health care visits from 2021 to 2023, and used the figures to estimate their health costs.

They found that eight per cent of people often experienced loneliness and another 32 per cent were lonely some of the time.

Loneliness was tied to mental distress, worse mental well-being, poorer physical health, and lower quality of life, the study found. Lonely people were also more likely to visit their general practitioner (GP) or the hospital than people who were not lonely.

“Our findings highlight the importance of recognising loneliness as both a public health issue and an NHS priority,” Antonieta Medina-Lara, one of the study’s authors and a professor of public health economics at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.

“Too often overlooked, loneliness carries substantial personal and societal costs,” she added.

The UK is far from the only country grappling with loneliness. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that loneliness affects 16 per cent of people worldwide, and views social disconnection as a “serious threat to global health”.

Social isolation and loneliness are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and anxiety, according to the WHO.

Several countries, including the UK, have launched national plans to combat loneliness in recent years, to foster both in-person and online connections between people who may be at risk of loneliness or social isolation, such as older adults.

The latest study indicates that age also plays a role in the health spending gap. Lonely young people and seniors incurred much higher costs than their non-lonely peers, a disparity that narrowed for people in midlife.

The researchers said they hope that more awareness of loneliness’s complex personal and societal consequences will lead to more concrete steps to address it.

“By making these visible, we hope to encourage new approaches to help people build connections, improve well-being, and ultimately reduce the burden on health services,” Medina-Lara said.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: health; healthcare; loneliness

1 posted on 09/03/2025 9:32:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: ConservativeMind

Ping


2 posted on 09/03/2025 9:33:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

NOWWWWwwwwWWW the CDC and WHO and all the rest of these fa**ots lying health professionals echoing what some of us said from the start, isolation for the greater good will kill more and make more stupid and mentally ill than the virus.
Effing planned killers


3 posted on 09/03/2025 10:14:50 PM PDT by Karliner (Heb 4:12 Rom 8:28 Rev 3, "...This is the end of the beginning." Churchill)
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To: nickcarraway

Hopefully a dozen Pamala Anderson robots for every male will solve this problem in the near future. As long as they have souls.


4 posted on 09/03/2025 10:42:47 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: nickcarraway

We are traveling across Ireland, Scotland, Scotland , and Wales for,almost,three weeks. The railroad stations, airports, and towns are FULL of mental health posters about worry, anxiety, loneliness, desperation, and being at the end of your rope with no way out. It is REALLY weird.


5 posted on 09/03/2025 10:45:34 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Mental health is also related to tooth health.


6 posted on 09/03/2025 10:52:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

No cornwall?


7 posted on 09/03/2025 10:52:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

They’re just prepping for their upcoming ‘Assisted Suicide is Painless’ ad campaign.


8 posted on 09/03/2025 10:53:03 PM PDT by bakeneko
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
The railroad stations, airports, and towns are FULL of mental health posters about worry, anxiety, loneliness, desperation, and being at the end of your rope with no way out.

But surely the Nanny State can gently suggest a cost-effective "way out":

Regards,

9 posted on 09/03/2025 11:01:25 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: nickcarraway

Surprise. You break families up and reduce the nuclear family down to patents and kids and, lo and behold, you have a loneliness epidemic.


10 posted on 09/03/2025 11:16:16 PM PDT by Jonty30 (Pornography feeds abortion. Abortion is Satan's ultimate effort to hurt God. )
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To: nickcarraway

fortunately i am excellent company


11 posted on 09/03/2025 11:29:49 PM PDT by joshua c
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To: alexander_busek

That’s one method, but I think they need a little more Soylent.


12 posted on 09/03/2025 11:34:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Well duh


13 posted on 09/03/2025 11:38:02 PM PDT by Bobalu (BUY what THEY can't PRINT! They have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind)
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To: nickcarraway

I’m never really lonely in my Excentrifugal Forz!


14 posted on 09/04/2025 2:35:07 AM PDT by equaviator (Nobody's perfect. That's why they put pencils on erasers!)
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To: nickcarraway

I think people don’t realize is that one can be more lonely in a crowd than when being alone.


15 posted on 09/04/2025 2:37:48 AM PDT by jimfr
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To: nickcarraway; ProtectOurFreedom; Phinneous; Larry Lucido; The Spirit Of Allegiance; SunkenCiv
Good Morning!

“Too often overlooked, loneliness carries substantial personal and societal costs,” she added.

"Preach the GOOD News!" ~ Jesus of Nazareth

Take that famous GNC (Good News Challenge) over to loneliness, and what's in a Hebrew word...

בְּדִידוּת bdidut

Meaning
loneliness, solitude, isolation

בדידות rearranges to --->

בית דוד

Bayit David --

"House of David"

David's signature Psalm:

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Keep on the Sunnyside! ~ Johnny Cash

Psalm 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

🌞

16 posted on 09/04/2025 3:05:32 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: nickcarraway; ProtectOurFreedom; Phinneous; Larry Lucido; The Spirit Of Allegiance; SunkenCiv
Peculiar:

There's nothing in the HTML of my previous post (I formatted it myself) that should have turned everything red from "The Lord is my shepherd" through "Keep on the Sunnyside!". Preview seemed fine because the text wasn't red until I'd hit post, so I didn't catch the missing line.

Ahh, mystery solved. This happened on account of the "coding" inherent at the beginning of the Psalm. The first line was bracketed by "< >", causing its words to disappear, and then the color of the subsequent text also changed.

It's always something.

<A Psalm of David.>

Greater than and Less than... sneaky signs!

(I though it important to come back to bring back the missing text.)

17 posted on 09/04/2025 3:37:03 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: nickcarraway

Study finds loneliness causes higher medical care needs and costs.

A: Loneliness
B: Higher medical care needs
C: Anti-social behavior or isolating illness

This is a big duh. Association is not causation.

There are only three possibilities. Does A cause B? ....Does B cause A?.... or does un-studied factor C cause both?


18 posted on 09/04/2025 5:14:57 AM PDT by nagant
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