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Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

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Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#41

Post by nh23423fefe »

vasco wrote: post #21
paraknight wrote: post #16

I haven't dug into all the sources, but I think there's a potential confounder here, or maybe even reverse causality. The author seems to assume causation when the studies only indicate correlation. E.g. the first link says "chronic loneliness increases mortality risk" but the actual source says "actual and perceived social isolation are both associated with increased risk for early mortality". So for example, it's p…

My dismissive but practical take is "well yeah there's nobody in the room to call an ambulance when you have the heart attack you'll most likely have", which mindfulness classes and support groups don't help with. There's practical benefits to having people around.

Dying of natural causes is ok though.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#42

Post by dcminter »

whatevaa wrote: post #22
smithkl42 wrote: post #19

[flagged]

It's the church which destroyed itself. Using its influence for political power, that gave it short term power but destroyed it long term. And I would not agree with religion providing sense of the world. It's another coping mechanism to deal with absurdity in the world. There is a reason people fallback to religion when times get tough.

> Using its influence for political power, that gave it short term power but destroyed it long term.

I'm no fan of organised religion, but this is a pretty wild take to me. "The church" has been around for the best part of 2000 years. It's been wildly political for most if not all of that. It doesn't show much sign of disappearing any time soon.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#43

Post by GratiaTerra »

smithkl42 wrote: post #19

[flagged]

Attending church can have negative consequences because religion promotes belief in unprovable claims, building life on a false premise: since the central claim isn’t true, the practices and rules around it may seem hollow or misleading.

Religion discourages critical thinking, consumes time and money, enforces conformity through social pressure, and expose individuals to guilt, shame, or manipulation by institutions with histories of abuse or corruption.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#44

Post by raffael_de »

fullstop wrote: post #37
raffael_de wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A liability for having tea with elderly citizens?

There's a lot of aspects here, such as where they would meet up, etc. If it's on school property and something happens, for example. Additionally there are restrictions for clubs operating off-campus. I don't know, it was seemingly more complicated than any of us had anticipated.

If you ask, the answer will always be No.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#45

Post by bookofjoe »

fullstop wrote: post #18

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

Old people's homes are very welcoming to ANYONE willing to spend time with the residents. No need to join a club: pick up the phone or stop by and ask if they would like your time. I guarantee the answer will be, "When can you start?"

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#46

Post by fullstop »

bell-cot wrote: post #32
fullstop wrote: post #18

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

Did your daughter talk to a few local senior citizen agencies or nursing homes? Last I knew, quite a few of those are interested in "just visit occasionally" volunteers. And if another org (which specialized in seniors) was handling that end of things, the U might not be so hung up on allowing the club. Or, "we're adults, just do it". The U can't actually stop of-age students from volunteering for local organizations…

Right, she has done that in the past. Her goal was to start a club so that it would persist long after she graduated.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#48

Post by fullstop »

bookofjoe wrote: post #45
fullstop wrote: post #18

Before getting tied up with bureaucratic nonsense my daughter was looking at starting a "borrow a grandma / grandpa" club at her university. The idea was to connect students with elderly people who are lonely, and they could have tea / coffee together. The elderly get to be social with a younger generation, and the younger generation gets to understand the struggles that a lot of elderly people face. I think that the…

Old people's homes are very welcoming to ANYONE willing to spend time with the residents. No need to join a club: pick up the phone or stop by and ask if they would like your time. I guarantee the answer will be, "When can you start?"

Right, she has done that, but she wanted to start a club so that it could continue after she's graduated.

Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%

#50

Post by Herring »

al_borland wrote: post #25

Mindfullness as a treatment for loneliness is strange to me. This doesn't actually help with the problem of being alone, it could just make someone be more OK with it. As someone who spends a lot of time alone, one of my big fears is having a medical emergency, even just choking on food, and dying from something that would be easily avoided had another person been in the house. I've gone and looked up how to give mys…

It's quite a rare thing to die by choking. It just doesn't feel like it, which is where mindfulness can help. You do more dangerous things every day like walking (falls) and driving, eating (obesity), and brushing your teeth (gum disease), so if you want to work on prevention it's better to have a head that correctly assesses risk and spends your limited time/money/effort optimally.
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