By Sarah Freuh, The National Academies of Sciences,Engineering, Medicine, January 7, 2022
The omicron variant-driven surge in COVID-19 over the holidays once again landed Americans in calculations about the risks and benefits of gathering with family and friends, weighing the hazard of possible illness versus the distress of loneliness and isolation.
The latter can have consequences not just for happiness but for overall health, especially for the elderly, according to a National Academies report released in February 2020, a month before pandemic lockdowns began. Among seniors, loneliness is linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety, for example, and social isolation is associated with a greater risk of dementia and of death from all causes.
Even before COVID-19, about one-quarter of Americans over age 65 were socially isolated, and more than 40 percent of people over age 60 reported feeling lonely. The pandemic’s arrival left elderly people who lived alone even more isolated than before, and cut off those living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities from family and friends, as facilities closed their doors to visitors in an attempt to protect residents.
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