Older people who suffer from chronic loneliness are significantly more likely to suffer a stroke, suggests a new analysis led by Harvard.
Published online on June 24, 2024, by Electronic medicinethe study evaluated data from 2006 to 2018 from nearly 12,200 people aged 50 and over (average age 67, 61% women). None of the participants had suffered a stroke before the study began. All answered questions on a standard test assessing loneliness, and about 9,000 participants answered the questions a second time four years later. Based on these responses, the researchers classified participants into four categories of loneliness: persistently low; graduation (high score at baseline and low at follow-up); recent onset (low score at baseline and high at follow-up); and consistently high (high score both at baseline and follow-up).
During 12 years of follow-up, 601 strokes were recorded among participants surveyed about loneliness at two periods. People classified as “persistently high” in loneliness were 56% more likely to have a stroke than those in the “persistently low” group, even after researchers took into account other psychological factors such as isolation and depression. However, participants in the “remitting” or “new-onset” loneliness groups did not show a trend toward higher stroke risk, suggesting that long-term loneliness takes a greater toll on the risk.
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