Widespread in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic.
About half of U.S. adults say they鈥檝e experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office.
鈥淲e now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It鈥檚 like hunger or thirst. It鈥檚 a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,鈥� Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. 鈥淢illions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that鈥檚 not right. That鈥檚 why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.鈥�
The declaration is intended to raise awareness around loneliness but won鈥檛 unlock federal funding or programming devoted to combatting the issue.
Research shows that Americans, who have become less engaged with worship houses, community organizations and even their own family members in recent decades, have steadily reported an increase in feelings of loneliness. The number of single households has also doubled over the last 60 years.
But the crisis deeply worsened when spread, prompting schools and workplaces to shut their doors and sending millions of Americans to isolate at home away from relatives or friends.
People culled their friend groups during the coronavirus pandemic and reduced time spent with those friends, the surgeon general鈥檚 report finds. Americans spent about 20 minutes a day in person with friends in 2020, down from 60 minutes daily nearly two decades earlier.
The loneliness epidemic is hitting young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. The age group reported a 70% drop in time spent with friends during the same period.
Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30%, with the report revealing that those with poor social relationships also had a greater risk of stroke and heart disease. Isolation also elevates a person鈥檚 likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety and dementia, according to the research. Murthy did not provide any data that illustrates how many people die directly from loneliness or isolation.
The surgeon general is calling on workplaces, schools, technology companies, community organizations, parents and other people to make changes that will boost the country鈥檚 connectedness. He advises people to join community groups and put down their phones when they鈥檙e catching up with friends; employers to think carefully about their remote work policies; and health systems to provide training for doctors to recognize the health risks of loneliness.
has rapidly exacerbated the loneliness problem, with one study cited in the report finding that people who used social media for two hours or more daily were more than twice as likely to report feeling socially isolated than those who were on such apps for less than 30 minutes a day.
Murthy said social media is driving the increase in loneliness in particular. His report suggests that technology companies roll out protections for children especially around their social media behavior.
鈥淭here鈥檚 really no substitute for in-person interaction,鈥� Murthy said. 鈥淎s we shifted to use technology more and more for our communication, we lost out on a lot of that in-person interaction. How do we design technology that strengthens our relationships as opposed to weaken them?鈥�
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Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press
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