WHO: one in six people worldwide affected by loneliness

One in six people worldwide is affected by loneliness Keystone-SDA

According to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), one in six people worldwide is affected by loneliness.

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A report by a WHO commission on social relationships found that loneliness and social isolation make people physically ill, contributing to 871,000 deaths a year around the world.

Loneliness increases the risk of strokes and heart attacks, diabetes, depression, anxiety and suicide, among other things.

Lonely teenagers are 22% more likely to get worse grades than their classmates, and lonely adults find it harder to find or keep a job.

People and families are not only affected individually. They also cost society billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost employment.

The problem of mobile phones and living alone

The co-chair of the commission, Vivek Murthy, defined loneliness: “Loneliness is a painful, subjective feeling that many of us experience when we don’t have the relationships we need. In contrast, social isolation is an objective state in which there are few relationships or interactions.”

One in three older people and one in four adolescents are estimated to be socially isolated, according to the report. The causes include illness, poor education and low income, a lack of opportunities for socialising and living alone, as well as digital technologies.

According to Murthy, people have been communicating for thousands of years not only through words, but also through facial expressions, body language, voice and silence. This is lost when they communicate constantly via mobile phones and social media.

Activity cards for young Swedes

The WHO cites Sweden as a positive example. The country has a national strategy against loneliness, the Swedish Minister of Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed said. It has been recognised that it is not just the lonely who have a problem, but society as a whole.

In Sweden, conscious efforts are now made in many places to facilitate social contact, for example in shops or restaurants, in neighbourhoods or clubs. All children and young people will soon be given money cards, but they will only be able to use them to book group activities for their leisure time.

Sweden will ban mobile phones in public schools, said Forssmed. Studies have shown that this increases social contact and reduces cyberbullying. Children and young people sleep better and find it easier to put their mobile phones away in their free time.

Children are also often frustrated when their parents are constantly busy with mobile phones, said the Swedish minister.

Digital technologies have their good points, the commission says. They allow contact, for example via video, which was previously impossible.

“But it is very important to have places and spaces in our lives where we can interact face-to-face with other people without being distracted by technology,” said Murthy.

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Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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