THE SILENT EPIDEMIC
EDUARDO C. GERDING
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
(Eleanor Rigby-The Beatles-
Lennon & McCartney)
Concept
In the English language, the
desired and happy solitude (solitude) is distinguished from the other
loneliness understood as isolation, deprivation and anguish, (loneliness). In
Spanish we only have one word, which encompasses both meanings.
Robert Coplan and Julie Bowker published the book in 2013: A Handbook of Solitude: Psychological Perspectives on Social Isolation where they maintain that desired and happy solitude reinforces self-esteem, generates clarity and can be highly therapeutic.
However, in this article we refer to unwanted loneliness and unwanted, suffering and radical social isolation; a silent epidemic that affects more and more people. 17
Loneliness and Social
Isolation
Loneliness and social
isolation are two different concepts.
Loneliness is a subjective
emotional and social experience that is characterized by the discrepancy
between the social relationships we have and those we wish to have.
According to a Meta-Gallup survey, worldwide (142 countries), one in 4 adults have reported feeling very lonely. Even 27% of young adults ages 19 to 29 reported feeling lonely. 18
Social isolation is an
objective state that considers the integration of the individual in the social
environment such as the frequency of their social relationships and contacts
with social networks.
Increasingly scarce free time,
teleworking, superficial communications, changing family meeting habits,
societies that have lost a sense of community and increased longevity are some
of the factors that lead to the rise in the isolation of people around the
world. 2
Both concepts have in common
that they are linked to an increase in blood pressure, a cognitive decline,
depression, early dementia and mortality. 26.29
Loneliness and Mortality
The World Health Organization
(WHO) considers that “unwanted loneliness is one of the greatest risks for the
deterioration of health, and a determining factor that favors the entry of
people who suffer from it into situations of dependency.” 2
The subjective feeling of
loneliness increases the risk of death by 26%.
The negative health
effects of unwanted loneliness are equivalent to the damage caused by smoking
15 cigarettes a day or being seriously overweight.
Loneliness and Mortality
The World Health
Organization (WHO) considers that “unwanted loneliness is one of the greatest
risks for the deterioration of health, and a determining factor that favors the
entry of people who suffer from it into situations of dependency.” 2
The subjective feeling of
loneliness increases the risk of death by 26%.
The negative health
effects of unwanted loneliness are equivalent to the damage caused by smoking
15 cigarettes a day or being seriously overweight.
Loneliness increases the
incidence of acute myocardial infarctions, strokes and premature deaths by 30%
20 and also weakens the immune system. 2
Social isolation - or
lack of social connection - and living in isolation turned out to be even more
devastating to health than that of a person who feels lonely. These factors
respectively increase the risk of mortality by 29% and 32%.
These figures exceed
those of other psychological factors, such as depression and anxiety, which are
associated with an increased risk of mortality by only 21 percent. 6
Unwanted loneliness in
Europe
13.4% of Spaniards feel unwanted loneliness
and, of all population groups, people between 16 and 24 years old are the most
affected. 21.9% of these people claim to feel unwanted loneliness and are up to
five points ahead of the next most affected population group, people between 25
and 34 years old. This loneliness is even more accentuated at Christmas. 28
Unwanted loneliness costs
Spain more than 14 billion euros each year.
In Germany, in the period
2020/2021, 7.8% of women and 8.8% of men reported suffering from unwanted
loneliness. According to Wurm et al, 8.3% of the German population aged 50 or
over suffer from loneliness. 30
More than 41 million Europeans feel alone. For those affected it means suffering. These people feel ashamed and do not dare to talk about their loneliness. (Daniel Kurt Boehm, Minister of Loneliness of Germany)
In 2015 Eurostat revealed that 6% of adults in the European Union had no one to turn to if they needed help and this peaked at 13% in Italy and Luxembourg. 23
Single-person households
In Germany, single-person
households increased from 30% to 35%.
The higher the income level,
the higher the percentage of single-person households.
In Brussels (Belgium) half of
the households are made up of people who live alone and represent 24% .Brussels population:1,217,000. If at the beginning of the 80s, this group
consisted mainly of widows and widowers, today, people who have never married
or started a family constitute the largest group, 38% of the total, according
to data collected by the Belgian statistical institute. In the case of men,
this percentage increases to 44.5%. Widowers and widows are now the second
group (30.9%) and the separated the third (22.7%). 19
In Japan, 40% of households
are single-person.
In Argentina, single-person
households, which were 10% in 2000, rose to 18% in 2010. In CABA they represent
30% and in Santiago del Estero 10%.17
In Argentina, life expectancy went from 69.5 years in 1980 to 76.7 today. This stretched the time that parents live without children, which can extend up to two or three decades and lead to a lonely old age in the event of the early death of one of the spouses, usually the man (Argentine women live on average four years longer than men). 17
In Argentina, one in five older people lives alone, according to the UCA report. According to the 2010 Census, 10.2% of the Argentine population is over 65 years old; one of the countries with the largest number of elderly people in Latin America. It is estimated that in 2025 this population will reach 12.7% and in 2050 it will reach 19%. By then, the population of people over 65 years of age will exceed in proportion the number of children and adolescents under 15 years of age. 6
Statistics indicate that a
quarter of the population says they have no one to talk to. 15
Loneliness in war veterans
In the Malvinas conflict,
which began on April 2, 1982, 23,428 combatants participated on the Argentine
side, according to official data from the Ministry of Defense of the Nation.
The conscripts are currently 60 years old and the rest of the participating
cadre personnel are even older. Hence the relevance of the topic.
In the case of Great Britain, approximately one in eight adults in the population is a war veteran which adds up to 1.7 million people. 25
According to the 2021 Census
of the 1.85 million war veterans in England and Wales, 13.6% were women and
86.4% men.
One third (31.8% or 589,640)
were war veterans aged 80 or older. 94.2% of war veterans were born in the
United Kingdom and 2.1% were born in other Commonwealth nations. In Nepal 0.6%
were born and in Ireland 0.5%. 5
British military charities
have revealed that loneliness and social isolation are prevalent for war
veterans of all ages. 27.29
Ypsilanti et al from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom have observed that unwanted loneliness is a prevalent phenomenon among war veterans. 44% of them have experienced loneliness at some point in their life and 10.4% have suffered from loneliness frequently. They also found that high levels of Post Traumatic Stress were linked to reports of unwanted loneliness. 9,31
C. Leslie et al's study of loneliness in British war veterans emphasizes that the Ministry of Defense understands the severity of these issues and their consequences. 14
In the US, Straus et al conducted a study on the health and resilience of 4,069 war veterans (average age = 62 years) in the period 2019-2020. They were able to verify that 56.9% felt lonely at some time and 19.7% frequently suffered from loneliness. 24
A study conducted at Syracuse University revealed that half of US War Veterans perceive, once they retire from military service, that they do not belong in society. This perception of lack of belonging is associated with a feeling of loneliness or social isolation regardless of family support at home. 11
For many veterans, service is not just a job, it is a lifestyle, a sense of identity and purpose. Therefore, the transition to the civilian sphere can create an identity crisis. While in service they had a structured life: they were told when to eat, what to eat, how to dress and what to do. A famous saying goes that military work is simple: All that is required to succeed is to be in the right place, at the right time, and in the right uniform. 11
A US Veterans Administration study found that among five forms of social connection, loneliness was linked to higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation. Loneliness was also related to lower personal levels of health care and asking for help.
Loneliness Ministry
In 2018, then-British Prime
Minister Theresa May appointed Tracey Crouch as the first-ever head of a
Loneliness Ministry (later replaced by Diana Barron), stressing that the role
“will address one of the biggest challenges in the world.” modern public
health. 7
At the time the decision was
announced, half of Britons over 75 (about 2 million) were living alone. 17
“How am I so alone when there are so many people around?” This was a woman's distressed call to the British Ministry of Loneliness's helpline and reveals one of the great paradoxes of the time: never have people had so many possibilities to communicate and never felt so alone. 2
In the United Kingdom, in the
first stage a budget of 5 million pounds was available, which was distributed
among 840 entities in charge of connecting single people in small groups with
various interests, many of them recreational.
In February 2019, Japan created its own Ministry of Loneliness and Isolation. 2
In 2017, the Japanese National
Institute of Social Security and Population Affairs conducted a survey on life
and mutual support, which found that 15% of older adults had, on average, a
conversation every two weeks.
In Japan, a Cabinet Office
survey found that half of those over 60 were afraid of ending their days alone
and abandoned. 2
he Minister of Loneliness and Isolation, Tetsushi Sakamoto, focused his greatest concern on the local phenomenon known as kodokushi (“dying alone”), which is the increase in cases of people, generally over 60 years of age, who die at home. and they are found several days or months later because there are no close friends or family to care for them. 2
According to an investigation
carried out by the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, 300 people die a year
in their apartments without it being known for several weeks. It's not for
nothing that they call Berlin "the capital of loneliness." The number
of Germans between 45 and 84 years old who reported feeling lonely increased by
15%. 21
The first of the pieces of
advice suggested by the WHO is the need for societies, and in particular people
close to those who live alone, to recognize the problem of social isolation. It
is essential to identify people at risk through health and social services and
implement interventions that help them socialize their lives. 2
The latter can be achieved through the action of the War Veterans Centers. It is also very interesting to see this problem through the military neighborhoods. 16
• The century of loneliness
English economist Noreena
Hearts points out that the type of mass communication, such as chat messages or
social networks, usually results in superfluous conversations that do not
achieve the sincere interaction of a personal encounter, and raises the need to
recover the sense of community to return to human ties. 12
• The German community system
The system devised in Germany
consists of community centers for all ages equipped with infrastructure
prepared for the meeting of all generations in the neighborhood. In this broad
exchange of interests, older adults teach young people cooking recipes, share
stories with children or explain traditional craft techniques, while young
people help them become familiar with computers and smartphones. 2
In Helsingborg, a town in
southern Sweden, since November 2019 the commune has implemented a collective
living experiment that seeks to connect young people and lonely retirees in a
building with apartments owned by the community, known as Sällbo (life
in company). It is a housing complex whose residents sign a contract by which
they commit to spending at least two hours a week sharing time with other
inhabitants of the condominium. 13
· The Sidewalk Talk of California (USA)
Sidewalk Talk, intended for people
who need to communicate with others to approach chairs arranged on sidewalks to
talk with “listeners” trained to listen to them. The idea came from therapist
Tracy Ruble and some friends from the Californian city of San Francisco. 22
Telecare Service of the
Argentine Red Cross
In Argentina, the Red Cross
has the Telecare Service, which is a 24-hour accompaniment service with an
emergency button. You must install an application on your cell phone. The
service is personalized and adapted to the needs of each person. Scheduled follow-up
calls, reminders for medications or medical appointments, and assistance in
case of emergencies . 4
Personalized support 24 hours
a day
Immediate emergency response
Monthly follow-ups, reminder
of appointments and/or medications
Security and peace of mind for
the user and their family
GPS location
National coverage
Care and monitoring against
COVID-19
The Senior Center Without
Walls is a similar organization that provides all benefits for seniors in
the Burke/West Springfield and Great Falls communities of the United States.
• APP Meetup Argentina
They connect people according
to their affinities. It proposes events and activities in nearby places
according to certain interests, which can range from cinema to gastronomy.
• Beekeeping and gardening for war veterans
U.S. veterans find peer
support essential after leaving active duty to maintain a sense of identity and
purpose. However, providing them with an opportunity to contact each other is
not enough. Communities must be built that bring together veterans while
simultaneously targeting those goals they miss from the military sphere. They
must be provided with a feeling of belonging and inclusion, thus mitigating the
feeling of loneliness.
In these communities, socialization, learning,
physical activities and opportunities for them to develop their skills should
be emphasized. Beekeeping and gardening have proven extremely effective in
connecting war veterans with each other and giving them a sense of purpose. 11
The Loneliness Action Group
is a network of 59 organizations co-led by the British Red Cross as part of
the strategy to combat loneliness.
In October 2018, the British
government launched its Loneliness Strategy in England in a document titled A
Connected Society: Tackling Loneliness and Social Isolation.
The British entity Campaign to
end Loneliness (who published scales to evaluate loneliness), advises the
following: 1,3,10
1.Contact your friends.
2.Invest in new relationships
such as volunteering.
3.Small actions make a
difference: Say hello to your neighbor or have informal chats with merchants.
4.Maintain contacts online.
There are courses to update yourself.
5. Don't keep things to
yourself. Discuss your issues.
6.Find out what type of
support (medical, psychological, etc.) exists in your community.
If you prefer to manage alone:
1.Plan to do activities during
the week that you like (gardening, reading, music)
2.Spend time in contact with
nature.
3.Prioritize your health: eat
well, sleep well, and stay active.
4.Focus on the good things in
life.
Bibliography
1-Assesing progress in tackling loneliness. British
Red Cross.
https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/we-speak-up-for-change/a-connected-society
2-Blanco,Eduardo-Como combatir la soledad una epidemia silenciosa que empieza a preocupar a los gobiernos.INFOBAE,14 Febrero 2022.
3-Campaign to End Loneliness-
https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/feeling-lonely/
4-Cruz Roja Argentina-Servicio de Teleasistencia.
https://cruzroja.org.ar/teleasistencia/
5-Characteristics of UK armed forces veterans, England and Wales: Census 2021-Office for National Statistics.
6-Chueke Perles, Daniela- Soledad: una epidemia silenciosa que puede detenerse-La Nación,14 de marzo, 2017.
7-Daley, Jason- The U.K. Now Has a “Minister for Loneliness.” Here’s Why It Matters-Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/minister-loneliness-appointed-united-kingdom-180967883/
8-Exploring Military Widows’ Experiences of Social Isolation and
Loneliness-Northumbria University.
https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/military-widows-experiences-of-social-isolation-and-loneliness-research-from-northumbria-university/#:~:text=The%20scale%20of%20the%20problem,socially%20isolated%20and%2For%20lonely.
9-Fox, Robert et al- Posttraumatic stress disorder and loneliness are associated over time: A longitudinal study on PTSD symptoms and loneliness, among older adults- Psychiatry Research- Volume 29 9, May 2021,
10-Government’s work on tackling loneliness-Department
for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Digital, Culture,
Media & Sport. Published 27 May 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/governments-work-on-tackling-loneliness
11-Graham, Emily-Combating social
isolation and loneliness among veterans after separation from Military
Service.Syracuse University,Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs-Lerner
Center for Public Health Promotion & Population Health-Issue Brief
#59-December 6,2022.
12-Hertz, Noreena-El Siglo de la
Soledad-Ediciones Paidós.
https://www.planetadelibros.com.ar/libro-el-siglo-de-la-soledad/337132
13-Jurado, Marta- Sällbo, el experimento de vivienda sueco que une a mayores de 70 años, jóvenes y refugiados.65 y mas.com-14 de enero,2023.
14-Leslie c.et al-Social isolation and loneliness
of UK veterans: a Delphi study -Occupational
Medicine, Volume 70, Issue 6, August 2020, Pages 407–414,
15-Manes, Facundo-Pensar la Argentina.
La epidemia de la soledad. Otro de los males de este siglo. Diario Popular.
16-Meadoes, Sarsah et al-Exploring the
Association Between Military Base Neighborhood Characteristics and Soldiers´
and Airmen´s Outcomes.Rand Army Research Division-Rand Project Air Force.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR1234.html
17-Natanson, Jose-Un Ministerio para la
soledad-Le Monde Diplomatique-Edicion 272-Febrero 2022
18-Nicioli, Taylor-The loneliness epidemic: Nearly 1 in 4 adults feel
lonely, new survey finds. CNN October 24,2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/24/health/lonely-adults-gallup-poll-wellness/index.html
19-Oliveras, Eliseo-La ciudad de las
almas solitarias-El Periodico.11 de mayo 2007.
https://www.elperiodico.com/es/internacional/20070511/ciudad-almas-solitarias-5449331
20-Origlia, Gabriela-La soledad no
deseada ya es un problema de salud publica a nivel mundial. La Nación-30
de enero 2023.
21-Schumaker, Elizabeth- Berlin,
capital of loneliness-DW-10/17/2019. https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-capital-of-loneliness/a-50867492
22-Sidewalk Talk-
https://www.sidewalk-talk.org/
23-Stefanello,Viola- Lonely in Berlin: German capital mulls Commissioner for Loneliness-Euronews.
Oct 18,2019
24-Straus,Elizabeth et al. Behavioral Epidemic of Loneliness in Older U.S. Military Veterans: Results From the 2019-2020 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study- Am J Geriatr Psychiatry-2022 Mar;30(3):297-310.
25-Tales of military life help
veterans overcome loneliness-Lancaster University-8 Nov 2018. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/tales-of-military-life-help-veterans-overcome-loneliness
26-Thomas,Toby- Alcohol misuse and loneliness ‘increase risk of early-onset dementia’-The Guardian- Tue 26 Dec 2023.
27-Tsur,
Noga et al- Loneliness
and subjective physical health among war veterans: Long term reciprocal effects.
Social
Science &Medicine Volume 234, August
2019, 112373
28-Una de cada 10 personas que padecen soledad no
deseada en España sufren más este aislamiento en Navidad-INFOBAE,24 de
diciembre.
https://www.infobae.com/espana/2023/12/24/una-de-cada-10-personas-que-padecen-soledad-no-deseada-en-espana-sufren-mas-este-aislamiento-en-navidad/embre
2023.
29-Wilson,
G et al- Loneliness
and social isolation of military veterans: systematic narrative review. Occupational
Medicine, Volume 68, Issue 9, December 2018, Pages 600–609.
30-Wurm, Susanne et al- Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in Germany- J Health Monit. 2023 Sep 20;8(3):49-54.
31-Ypsilanti, Antonia et al-Disgust is Associated with Loneliness,
Mental Health Difficulties,amd Eye-Gaze Avoidance in War Veterans with PTSD-Front.Psychol.,30
October 2020-Volume 11-2020.
