Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992 TAG: 9201220090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEW RESEARCH UNDERLINES LONERS' HEALTH RISK
As more Americans than ever are living alone, evidence is mounting that isolation can be bad for one's health for reasons that may range from the absence of a ride to the hospital to the lack of some chemical response to human contact.The latest clues about the health hazards of aloneness are two studies published today that found people with heart disease who live alone and have no close friends are more likely than others to suffer another heart attack.
Reasons for the pattern are unclear, but previous studies have found higher rates of death in general among the unmarried. In addition, accidents, suicides, psychiatric disorders, even tuberculosis have been found to be more common among the socially isolated.
"The data is very strong and suggestive that we need better social contacts," said Dr. Robert B. Case, a New York cardiologist and author of one of the new studies. "It may be very important to maintain these relationships, particularly in today's society."
Nearly 12 percent of American adults, or 22.6 million people, were living alone at the time of the 1990 census. According to census officials, that is believed to be an all-time high, up from 7 percent, or 10.8 million adults, in 1970.
The rise of the one-person household coincides with advances in knowledge of the health risks of being alone. Some researchers have gone so far as to suggest that social disintegration in the United States is helping to undermine public health.
One new study, by Case and others at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University in New York City, found that heart attack patients living alone were nearly twice as likely as others to suffer another heart attack - and more likely to die of an attack - within six months.
In the other, Dr. Redford B. Williams, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Duke University Medical Center, found that unmarried heart patients without a close personal confidant were significantly less likely than others to survive for five years.