Improvement of social isolation and loneliness and excess mortality risk in people with obesity.
It is unknown whether elevated obesity-related mortality risk could be attenuated by improvements in social isolation and loneliness, conditions that are substantially more prevalent in obese people than in non-obese people. Zhou et al. (2024) sought to find out if a reduction in social isolation or loneliness would decrease the excess mortality risk associated with obesity. In this cohort research, participants were recruited from the UK Biobank who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer at baseline. Follow-up for the participants lasted from March 2006 to November 2021. Mortality resulting from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes were evaluated. The study included 398972 individuals (mean [SD] age: 55.85 [8.08] years; 220469 [55.26%] women; 13734 [3.44%] Asians; 14179 [3.55%] Multiracial; and 363685 [91.16%] White people). 305615 (76.60%) did not suffer from obesity, and 93357 (23.40%) were obese. Twenty-two thousand eight hundred seventy-two incident fatalities were documented over a median (IQR) follow-up of 12.73 (12.01-13.43) years. Data Analysis demonstrated a significant increase in all-cause mortality in obese individuals with a social isolation score of 2 or higher compared to their peers who scored 1 or 0. Similarly, obese individuals with a score of 2 or higher on the loneliness index had a significant increase in all-cause mortality compared to their peers who scored 1 or 0. Multivariate data analysis demonstrated that when the social isolation and loneliness score moved from highest to lowest, a reduction in all-cause mortality by 36% and 9%, respectively, was observed in individuals with obesity compared with those without obesity. When calculating the risks of all-cause mortality, cancer-related mortality, and CVD-related mortality, social isolation ranked higher than depression, loneliness, anxiety, and lifestyle-related risk factors, including alcohol, physical activity, and a balanced diet. The authors conclude that a lower index of social isolation or loneliness was linked to a lower risk of all-cause mortality in obese individuals in this population sample from the UK Biobank. An improvement in social isolation and loneliness was shown to reduce the extra risk of all-cause mortality associated with obesity. [NPID: Social isolation, loneliness, mortality, excess mortality risk, obesity, adults]
Year: 2024
