A study published in the journal EClinicalMedicine has found an association between chronic loneliness and a higher risk of stroke in middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. The findings are based on data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 50 years and older, and their spouses of any age, between 2006 and 2018.
The longitudinal cohort study, conducted by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, examined the relationship between loneliness and incident stroke. Loneliness was measured using the validated 3-item Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, with scores ranging from 3 to 9. The study included 12,161 stroke-free individuals aged 50 years or older at baseline.
During the 10-12 year follow-up period (2006-2018), 1,237 incident strokes were observed among the participants in the baseline loneliness analysis. The study found that a one-unit increase in the loneliness score was associated with a 5% higher risk of incident stroke in the fully adjusted model (HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01-1.08).
When examining loneliness change over two time points, individuals with "consistently high" loneliness had a 56% higher risk of incident stroke (HR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.11-2.18) compared to those with "consistently low" loneliness, after adjusting for depressive symptoms and social isolation. In the loneliness change analysis, 601 incident strokes were observed among 8,936 participants during the 6-8 year follow-up period (2010-2018).
The study's lead author, Yenee Soh, a doctoral student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that the findings highlight the potential role of chronic loneliness as a risk factor for stroke, and that repeated assessments of loneliness over time may help identify at-risk individuals.
The researchers suggest that future studies should investigate the underlying mechanisms linking loneliness to stroke risk and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions targeting loneliness in stroke prevention. As the global population ages, understanding the health implications of loneliness will be important for promoting healthy aging and reducing the burden of stroke.
This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.