Social isolation may predict mortality as accurately as smoking

[caption id="attachment_17068" align="alignleft" width="299"] elderly women[/caption]

Carol Forsloff----If you are among those who shrink from social interaction or you live in a remote area where you don't see other people much, research says that can be as bad, or even worse, for your health than smoking.  

 In fact social isolation is a predictor of mortality, as much or more than other factors like smoking, obesity or high cholesterol.

New research from the American Journal of Public Health reports the findings of researchers who analyzed social isolation by reviewing marital or partnership status, frequency of contact with other people, participation in religious activities and participation in other club or organizational events. Those who don't participate with others have been found to have a higher likelihood of death than those who are interactive and social.

Infrequent religious activity, being unmarried and being socially isolated in general individually predicts mortality of both men and women.

The authors write, “Our findings highlight the value of isolation as a risk factor for mortality and emphasize the clinical importance of understanding a patient's social integration and support.

25% of men over age 75 live alone and nearly half of women 75 and older, many of them by choice, although seniors relate they do this as a way of being independent and because they don't want to be an imposition on children. It is this group that scientists maintain need to be given extra support during aging and that society should reach out to seniors who are isolated. 

Social isolation has significant negatives for heart attack patients

COLUMBUS, OH - GHN News Editor - “Social isolation hits cardiac arrest victims from multiple angles. It
is involved in results for cell death, inflammation, and a variety of
behavioral and physiological measures.”

  This is the conclusion of researchers after their investigation of the

negative impact social isolation has on heart attack patients.


Heart attack patients need more than anything else social involvement to
prevent future problems, according to Courtney DeVries, who co-authored
new research on the subject.  She is an associate professor of
psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State and a member of the university’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.


What researchers found in studying mice is that those who lived with a
partner or had regular interaction with other mice had less worst
physical damages to the brain following a heart attack than those who
lived by themselves.

“The results really
get at the profound influence that the social environment can have on
health after cardiac arrest,” said Greg Norman,  who led the study and
is studying for his doctorate in psychology at Ohio State University.

“This is another way that social interaction is able to improve health functioning after a heart attack,” said Norman.

That finding is
important because, in humans, heart rate variability after a heart
attack is strongly related to survival, according to researchers like
DeVries and Norman.

“We only
followed the mice for seven days after the heart attack, but if these
results are confirmed it could suggest that social isolation may have a
negative impact on survival in heart attack victims,” DeVries said.

This study and
others have documented the damage that inflammation can cause have a
heart attack, particularly in socially isolated animals, according to
DeVries.

“There seems to
be this residual inflammation in the brain that lasts long after the
heart attack is over,” she said. “We believe this inflammation may be
related to many of the problems that victims have after a heart attack,
including psychological consequences, such as depression.”

When the
patterns of social interaction and the physical consequences from it are
examined, it becomes significant what is important for heart attack
victims.

Norman said, “You really see the ability of social interaction to influence recovery.”