Ageing experts have shared ways to increase social connection and reduce loneliness among older people after recent research showed loneliness has become an epidemic in the U.S. and Australia, with one in three people affected and a third of all seniors now living alone.
A study from Stanford University published in the journal Aging found that loneliness ages a person even faster than smoking.
Loneliness, unhappiness, and hopelessness added up to one year and eight months to someone’s age—five months longer than smoking.
Recent research by Australian Catholic University’s Associate Professor Jenneke Foottit has identified that for older adults, the connection to friends is more important than the connection to family. Yet, these are the relationships most impacted by ageing….