Authors say findings support efforts to improve social isolation, loneliness<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Improving social isolation and loneliness may attenuate excess obesity-related mortality risk, according to a study published online Jan. 22 in\u00a0JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jian Zhou, M.D., from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, and colleagues investigated whether improvement of social isolation or loneliness is associated with a lower obesity-related excess risk for mortality. The analysis included data from 398,972 participants in the U.K. Biobank with follow-up from March 2006 to November 2021.<\/p>\n The researchers found that compared with participants with obesity and an index of \u00e2\u0089\u00a52 for social isolation, risk for all-cause mortality was lower for participants with obesity and a social isolation index of 1 and 0. A similar trend was seen when comparing participants with obesity and a loneliness index of 1 and 0 with those with an index of 2 for loneliness. Risk for all-cause mortality decreased as the index of social isolation and loneliness went from highest to lowest in people with obesity versus people without obesity (hazard ratios decreased by 36 and 9 percent, respectively). Social isolation was ranked higher than loneliness, depression, anxiety, and lifestyle-related risk factors (e.g., alcohol, physical activity, and healthy diet) for estimating the risks for all-cause, cancer-related, and cardiovascular disease-related mortality.<\/p>\n “These findings support the improvement of social isolation and loneliness in people with obesity to decrease obesity-related excess risk of mortality,” the authors write.<\/p>\n