Adults who reported feeling lonely faced a higher risk of developing valvular heart disease, even after researchers accounted for traditional heart‑disease risk factors and genetic predisposition, according to new research.
Valvular heart disease occurs when one of the heart’s four valves no longer functions properly.
A report from the American Heart Association says the condition was linked to more than 440,000 deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2020.
In the study, researchers analysed data from 463,000 volunteers with an average age of 58. Participants completed questionnaires measuring loneliness and social isolation when they entered the study.
Questions on loneliness focused on how often people felt alone and how much they felt they could trust others. Social‑isolation questions looked at the frequency of in‑person interactions.
Those with higher loneliness scores were more often men and had lower levels of education. They also showed higher rates of smoking, physical inactivity, poor sleep patterns and lower dietary scores.