2023-05-10 08:05:14
A report by the Chief Medical Officer of the United States once again highlights the health risks to which loneliness exposes.
Loneliness is not a disease… but it has an undeniable impact on health. Many studies confirm it, it increases cardiovascular mortality by 30%, but also the risk of dementia or the risk of depression and anxiety.
Considered for years as a public health problem in the United States, it is now qualified as a health emergency : At the beginning of May, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s chief medical officer, published an 81-page (1) report in which he sounded the alarm, saying that one in two Americans today suffers from loneliness… and that it is as bad for your health as smoke 15 cigarettes a day ! As Dr. Murthy reminds us, loneliness affects all aspects of society, whether economic, social or structural.
The remedies: more infrastructure… but above all more money!
How to cure it ? “The service is a powerful antidote to loneliness,” he recalls before pointing in his report – which however has no power to release the necessary federal funds! – that state investments are needed in the public transportl’ educationTHE youth servicesTHE libraries and the green spaces. He also encourages employers et tech giants to play their role in research and innovation, in order to encourage people to disconnect from screens and reconnect with each other!
A study cited in this report also recalls that people who use the (decidedly misnamed) social networks, for two hours or more a day, are twice as likely to feel socially isolated as those who use them less than 30 minutes a day: another reason to put down your smartphone, especially when you’re with family or friends!
In France, since 2010, the Fondation de France has published an annual report on the subject. The latest (2), published last January, shows that in 2022 the feeling of loneliness concerned 11 million French people, or 21% of the population over 15 years old. This is a little less than in 2021, when the measures taken during the pandemic had led 24% of people to feel concerned… but much more than in 2010, when this figure was only 11%. (3).
The cause (therefore the remedy) is on the other hand always as clear: social isolation seems to have its source mainly in the precariousness and the unemployment… However, neither our social organizations nor our companies are doing much to remedy this! It must be said that our health authorities do not seem to have been more alarmed than that by the problem…
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