Health News
Does Loneliness Affect the Heart?
March 29, 2006
We already know that being overweight or inactive takes a toll on the heart, but could loneliness also be bad for the heart?
A psychologist of the University of Chicago has found that older adults and middle-aged adults that are lonely have higher blood pressure levels than those who are least lonely. Although the effect of loneliness on blood pressure increased with age, loneliness remained to be a predictor of higher blood pressure.
The study focused on 229 adults between the ages of 50 and 68. The data was gathered in 2002 and participant underwent several psychological evaluations and measurements including the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale.
The authors of this study emphasize that this study is limited by its correlational nature.