孤独已成为一大公共健康杀手

据人口普查显示，美国有四分之一的人口过着独居生活，结婚率和生子率也在逐年下降。本月召开的美国心理学协会第125届年会发布上的相关研究也证实了孤独与早逝之间确有一定的联系。

在此次大会上，杨百翰大学的心理学教授朱莉安娜·霍特·伦斯塔德展示了社会关系对健康影响的相关证据。有关证据来自两项综合分析。第一项分析涵盖了148个相关研究，研究对象逾30万人。分析显示，有稳固社会关系的人的早逝风险比没有稳固交际圈子的人低了50%。另一项综合分析涵盖了70个相关研究，分析发现，孤独和独居等因素都会大大提高一个人的早逝风险。研究人员表示，孤独的致死风险已经不亚于肥胖症，是导致当代人英年早逝的一个隐形杀手。

伦斯塔德教授指出：“有坚实的证据表明，社交孤立和孤独会显著提高过早死亡的风险，且这一风险已经超过了许多人们耳熟能详的健康因素。”

在以前的研究中，伦斯塔德教授及其同事们已经论证了主观的孤独感和客观的孤独状态都会对人的健康产生负面影响。有研究显示，主观上感到孤独的人，不管他们的朋友圈子有多大，都会在生病时感受到比一般人更严重的症状。随着美国变得越来越孤独，很多缺乏交际的人也必然会感到自身健康状况的滑坡。

在2016年接受《财富》采访时，《孤独：人的天性与社交需求》一书的作者约翰·卡丘坡曾指出，孤独对一个人的生理和心理健康都会造成影响：“孤独对心理健康是有害的，你的幸福感下降了，抑郁症状增加了，你患上精神和情感障碍的可能性也相应地提高了。”

目前，越来越多的人已经意识到孤独是对公共健康的一大威胁。明白如何对抗这个愈发严峻问题，已经成了社会的现实需求。专家们也在呼吁对该领域进行更多研究。伦斯塔德在一篇文章中表示：“随着人口的日益老龄化，孤独对公共健康的影响只会日益加重。很多国家的事例表明，孤独已经成了一种‘无声的传染病’。如何应对这种传染病，已经成为摆在我们面前的一大挑战。”（财富中文网）

译者：贾政景

In the United States, about a quarter of the population lives alone. Marriage rates and the number of kids per U.S. household are also dropping, according to census data. Now, research presented this month at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association underlines the connection between loneliness and a premature death.

At the convention, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, presented evidence from two meta-analyses on the effects of social connection on health. The first analysis looked at 148 studies involving more than 300,000 people and found that people with social connections had a 50% lower risk of dying early compared to people who did not have strong social circles. The other analysis of 70 studies found that loneliness, isolation, and living alone all had a significant effect on a person's risk for early death. The researchers suggested that the impact was similar to the effect that obesity has on mortality rates.

“There is robust evidence that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase risk for premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators,” Holt-Lunstad said in a statement about the research.

In previous work, Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues have argued that both self-reported feelings of loneliness and the objective state of being socially isolated has a negative effect on people's health. Studies have found that people who report feeling lonely — regardless of the actual size of their network — are more likely to experience worse symptoms when they're sick. While data suggests that more Americans are socially isolated than in the past, people who feel they lack connections are similarly likely to experience poorer health.

In a 2016 interview with Fortune, John Cacioppo, author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, argued that loneliness has a physical and psychological effect on people's health: "[Loneliness] is bad for your mental health: well-being goes down, depressive symptoms go up, your likelihood of developing mental and affective disorders increases," he said.

The bottomline is that loneliness is becoming increasingly recognized as a threat to public health. Understanding how to combat what could be a growing problem in the U.S. is important for communities, and experts are calling for more research in the space. "With an increasing aging population, the effect on public health is only anticipated to increase," Holt-Lunstad said in a statement. "Indeed, many nations around the world now suggest we are facing a ‘loneliness epidemic.’ The challenge we face now is what can be done about it."