Loneliness stings at any age. But in older people, it can have
serious health consequences, raising the risks of an earlier-
than-expected death and the loss of physical functioning,
according to a study published on Monday. The report, in the
Archives of Internal Medicine, is the largest yet to tease out
the impact of loneliness on people in their later years.
Geriatricians at the University of California, San Francisco,
asked 1,604 adults age 60 and older how often they felt isolated
or left out, or lacked companionship. The researchers were
attempting to quantify the feeling of loneliness — a sense of
not having meaningful contact with others, accompanied by
painful distress. Answers were recorded in 2002 and every two
years after through 2008. The number of older adults who
reported feeling lonely — just over 43 percent — didn’t change
significantly over that period, according to Dr. Carla
Perissinotto, an assistant clinical professor at U.C.S.F. and
the study’s lead author. About 13 percent of older adult