Loneliness and Diabetes: How Social Isolation Raises Your Risk

Loneliness is a mental health problem that has been proven to have a significant impact on quality of life and health. This is a type of integration that often leads to reduced contact with others and a lack of social communication. This can lead to conflict and intentional separation.

Studies on Prevalence and correlates of loneliness in the later life published in Indian Journal of Psychiatry suggest that loneliness is a psychosocial problem that can affect anyone at any age in any circumstances, but it has become a serious issue of concern among the elderly¹

Fig.1: State and Union Territory-Wise Prevalence of Loneliness among Elderly in India

A new meta-analysis based on data from 8 studies evaluating 11,686,677 patients without T2DM yielded the following key results²:

Living alone significantly increases the likelihood of developing diabetes by 24%.

Men living alone are more likely than women to develop diabetes.
Being alone can be very isolating and can be associated with lack of motivation and increased stress.
Stress affects the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, causing an increase in glucocorticoids.
As a result, the sugar level rises and the blood sugar level increases.
Mental stress also increases nervous system concentration, which is associated with increased blood sugar levels and glucose intolerance.

Also, being alone not only increases the risk of disease in society, but also increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

References:

1. Srivastava P, Srivastava M. Indian J Psychiatry 2023; 65:914-21.
2. Huang J et al. Prim Care Diabetes. 2024 Feb;18(1):1-6.