90 studies on over 2 million people confirm it – Corriere.it

have one life full of healthy social relationships not only does it make you happy – as certified, for example, by a recent study by Harvard University – but it also makes you happy live longer. This is what emerges from an extensive review of the scientific literature that appeared on June 19th Nature Human Behaviour and curated by a team of researchers largely from the Department of Epidemiology of theHarbin Medical Universityin China.

Ninety studies examined: conducted between 1986 and 2022 in mostly industrialized nations (29 in the United States and almost half in Europe), overall they monitored the health status of ben 2,205,199 people over the age of 18. By cross-referencing the results, the authors of the research found that theisolation and the loneliness are associated with an increased risk of death from all causes respectively of +32% he was born in +14%. In this sense, the term «isolation» was referred to an objective lack or an extreme limitation of social contactswhile with «solitude» one has been indicated more intimate and subjective feeling of discomfort deriving from the “gap” between the social relationships that the person would like to have and those that he actually has.

That said, what are the reasons behind such significant correlations? The review did not elaborate on it, but it has already been demonstrated several times that individuals who find themselves in these conditions have, for example, ahigh probability of smoking and consuming alcoholwhile they have less than eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise and receiving quality medical care precisely because of the limitation of their social networks.

«Isolation is worse than loneliness», illustrated Maoqing Wang, one of the signatories of the work. The reason is obvious: «People who feel alone but are not socially isolated experience mental stress, but they can resist thanks to their social networks». Both cases bear however serious threats. In fact, if loneliness “promotes the deterioration of mental health”, isolation “damages both physical and cognitive health”. At least, again according to Wang, «according to the meta-analysis the combined effect of isolation and loneliness is no greater than the separate effects». Better to prevent, from social animals which we all – Aristotelian – we are.