Study Reveals Loneliness May Be Linked With Diabetes
Last Updated:July 17, 2025, 14:46 IST
Social isolation may not just impact your mental health severely but also cause damage to you physically, raising possibility of diseases such as diabetes.
Medical researchers have picked out a connection between these individuals and diseases like diabetes. (Representative Image)
While damaging to your mental health, isolation and loneliness are now considered a threat to your physical health as well, according to a recent study. Turns out, if you are a loner, you might not just be emotionally hurt but also face physical challenges, including diseases such as diabetes. A study presented at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, California, has found that socially isolated individuals are under increased threat of developing diabetes and high blood sugar in the future.
Psychologists and mental health experts all over the world are seeing a rising number of individuals suffering from loneliness and its adverse effects since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A high proportion of these are older adults. Now, medical researchers have picked out a connection between these individuals and diseases like diabetes, which is a chronic condition that occurs when the body either doesn’t produce sufficient insulin or can’t effectively use the insulin it produces.
The ineffective insulin usage could lead to high blood sugar levels, causing serious health complications, including heart disease, kidney damage and even vision-based challenges. High blood pressure can be a silent killer if not addressed in the long run. The hypertension is one of the major causes of chronic illnesses.
“Social isolation and loneliness have been increasingly recognised as important health risk factors after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings underscore the importance for clinicians to recognise social isolation as a critical social determinant of health when caring for older patients,” said lead researcher Samiya Khan, M.D, of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
“These findings are especially relevant given the rapidly growing ageing population in the United States and globally, alongside the widespread prevalence of social isolation and loneliness among older adults.”
Taking data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003-2008, researchers assessed the health history and nutritional status of the adults and students based in the United States. Among the 3,833 adults between the ages of 60 and 84 studied, researchers observed that socially isolated older adults were 34 per cent more likely to have diabetes and 75 per cent more likely to have poor blood sugar control.
“These findings underscore the importance of social connections for the well-being of older adults. Physicians should recognise social isolation as a potential risk factor among elderly patients for both diabetes and high blood sugar,” said Khan, raising an alarm bell against loneliness.
About the Author
Nishad Thaivalappil is a Lifestyle and Entertainment Journalist with almost a decade-long odyssey in the realms of movies, music, culture, food, and travel. He leads the Lifestyle desk at News18.com. Besides ha…Read More
Nishad Thaivalappil is a Lifestyle and Entertainment Journalist with almost a decade-long odyssey in the realms of movies, music, culture, food, and travel. He leads the Lifestyle desk at News18.com. Besides ha… Read More
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