People are lonely. Small steps in your community can make a difference

A move to a new city, remote work from home all day or a big change to social networks — your life experiences sometimes create loneliness that’s hard to shake.

A move to a new city, remote work from home all day or a big change to social networks — your life experiences sometimes create loneliness that’s hard to shake.

But a little more investment in your community may make a big difference, said Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

One in 5 adults in the United States reported feeling loneliness “a lot of the day yesterday,” according to Gallup data released Tuesday.

Loneliness in the U.S. is an epidemic, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said last year. And research has shown that loneliness and isolation are linked to health concerns such as sleep problems, inflammation, depression, anxiety and a shorter lifespan.

One big problem is that after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lost opportunities to see friends, family and coworkers in person, said Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index.

And although rates of loneliness are not as high now as they were during the height of the pandemic, they did go up this year, according to the Gallup research.

There are two kinds of loneliness, said Dr. Gemma Hughes, associate professor of healthcare management at the University of Leicester School of Business in the United Kingdom. Emotional isolation results from a lack of deep, emotional connection, and social isolation is the lack of social networks and daily interactions, she added. Both are important.