Loneliness boosts risk of heart disease and cancer

Image courtesy of ACS

CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 17, 2018 – Joining a book club or bowling league, playing cards with friends or getting involved in a community club is good for you and could reduce your risk of dying from heart disease or cancer. That’s the finding of the Cancer Prevention Study - II that followed more than 580,000 people for 30 years.

The study led by the American Cancer Society’s Kassandra Alcaraz, PhD, MPH, evaluated whether associations of social isolation with all causes of cardiovascular disease and cancer death differed by race and sex. The study appears in the Oct. 2018 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The researchers created an isolation score based on marital status, frequency of attendance at religious services, club meetings, group activities, along with the number of close friends and relatives. A score of 0 was associated with being the least isolated and 5 being the most isolated.

After following the study participants for 30 years, they found that race appeared to be a stronger predictor of social isolation than sex, with white men and women more likely to be least isolated compared to black men and women. There was a statistically significant greater risk of all causes of death and greater social isolation, but the association was the strongest for isolation occurring in the first 15 years of the study.

Men and women of all races who were socially isolated had a higher risk of dying of heart disease, while socially isolated white men made up the group with the highest risk of dying of cancer. The risk of cancer and social isolation was not found among white women and black men and women.

The researchers conclude that a composite measure of social isolation is a good predictor of a person’s risk of dying for all racial and gender groups, and lack of interpersonal connections seems particularly detrimental.

Source: American Cancer Society press release