(Linda Searing/ The Philadelphia Tribune) — For older women, being lonely and socially isolated can increase the chance of developing heart disease by as much as 27%, according to research published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The finding adds heart disease to a list of potential health effects of loneliness and isolation that include dementia and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Data from nearly 58,000 postmenopausal women who were tracked for more than a decade showed that, independently, social isolation increased heart disease by 8% and loneliness increased it by 5%, but the effect was much stronger for those who reported high levels of both feelings, giving them a 13% to 27% higher risk for cardiovascular problems than women with low levels of both. (…)