Loneliness, isolation and the health of older adults: do we need a new research agenda?

Abstract

From Greek mythology and the Bible to modern critiques of the digital age, loneliness has been portrayed as part of the human condition. Recognition of the significant adverse consequences for health has come more recently, with much of the interest triggered by a rise in the death rate in Europe in 2003. Unusually high temperatures in the summer of that year were linked with the deaths of more than 40,000 mainly elderly people throughout mainland Europe. Proportionately fewer deaths were recorded among frail and sick older people living in institutions, compared with more able, but less well-supported people living in the community. These deaths stimulated much discussion and reflection on the treatment of elders in society. In France, and later the UK, non-governmental organizations instigated campaigns to address loneliness and isolation among the aged. Such campaigns, along with research from different disciplines linking loneliness and isolation with adverse health outcomes and premature mortality, have focused attention on the problems. But despite acknowledgement of isolation in the UK National Service Framework for Older People in relation to falls and depression,1 concern among care providers and commissioners has never matched the breadth and severity of the consequences of isolation and loneliness. In this article, we present an overview of current evidence and suggest that a renewed research agenda is required for a growing older population.