Living alone and unhappy ages you as much as smoking, research finds

Having vulnerable mental health, such as living alone, depressed, and unhappy, accelerates aging as much as other health-impacting conditions, such as smoking. The finding is from a study carried out by Chinese researchers that reinforces the importance of paying attention not only to biological aging, but also to psychological aging.

The results were published in the scientific journal “Aging Us” and were obtained using an “aging clock,” a statistical model that used blood test data from the China Longitudinal Health and Retirement Study with information from 11,914 adults over of 45 years.

The information was analyzed by the scientists, who made the connection between the physical and psychological aspects of aging.

The researchers measured the biological age of the study participants compared to their chronological age using 16 blood biomarkers (such as cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin) and 7 other biometric parameters. They came to the conclusion that it takes companionship and living in a psychologically positive environment for healthy longevity.

According to research, the watch detected accelerated aging in people with cardiovascular, lung and liver problems. But what was surprising was the finding that psychological factors (among them living alone, feeling hopeless or unhappy) added 1.65 years to biological age – a sum of years greater than other expected aspects, such as biological sex, housing, marital status and smoking.

According to geriatrician Thais Ioshimoto, from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, other studies have already associated living alone and being a man, for example, with the risk of dying earlier.

“The interesting thing about this work is that it compares the risk of aging with other variables, such as smoking. This is a parameter that makes the results more tangible for the population”, says the doctor.

According to Ioshimoto, the results have an impact on population health and on possible public health actions because they reinforce the importance of the elderly being active and with a network of social contacts.

“We are human beings, we don’t know how to live alone. Loneliness is a stressful factor and we still don’t know how to measure it. It is increasingly proven that loneliness has a direct impact on mental health, longevity and quality of life”, he says.

According to the professional, the recommendation is that older people engage in some community, social network and participate in collective acts to always have an active support network.

“And this has to be done from when we are young adults. The older and later we start, the harder it becomes to engage,” he concluded.