Goodbye, loneliness. Hello, happiness— a prescription for healthier lives.

By Michelle Williams and Jeremy Nobel progress, a burden often shared by their care providers need to consider loneliness to caregivers. External factors also are to be a modifiable risk factor for ill health. blame. Research indicates that Internet And let’s not overlook innovative AT A COLLOQUIUM last month at and social media engagement exacerbates the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public approaches. This month, for example, the feelings of loneliness, depression, and UnLonely Film Festival and Conference in Health, Nobel Prize-winning economist anxiety. Angus Deaton spoke of a global rise in New York will showcase successful programs preventable deaths by suicide, alcoholism- As a society, we thrive when we are that are chipping away at social isolation. related liver disease, and addiction, connected. Strong social bonds play a causal Such initiatives aren’t complex or expensive. calling them “deaths of despair.” From the role in long-term health and well-being. Former surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy perspectives of public health and medicine, Social connections, in a very real way, are introduced a five-minute exercise during we recognize the outsized role that keys to happiness and health. staff meetings called “Inside Scoop,” which loneliness and social isolation play in those If there is any doubt that people crave allowed staffers to share photos highlighting deaths of despair. knowledge about the secrets to happiness meaningful personal stories. He noted how this personal sharing reduced stress and This is not an American public health and health, consider this: An academic’s 2015 YouTube video on the lessons learned increased both connections to others and to issue alone. Globally, the World Health the group’s mission. Organization now lists social support from a Harvard research study has been networks as one of the factors that viewed nearly 21 million times. Finally, the critical nature of social determine health, while the United “The surprising finding is that our relationships should be included in national Kingdom recently created a minister of relationships and how happy we are in our public health priorities, taking its place health to address loneliness as a public relationships has a powerful influence on with obesity, substance abuse, and physical health priority. our health. Taking care of your body is inactivity. Public health researchers and practitioners must continue to study and Researchers define social isolation as important but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too,” said Dr. Robert promote effective responses to loneliness something with objective, quantifiable and isolation— in particular, how to roll markers such as living alone, having few Waldinger, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the back those heartbreaking, preventable social network ties, or a dearth of social deaths of despair. contacts. Loneliness is more subjective. It is Harvard Study of Adult Development, an something we perceive; we feel the absence ongoing research project since 1938. of the social connections we desire. It’s lack If our Holy Grail is happiness and health, Michelle Williams is dean of the Harvard of companionship, or lack of intimacy with how do we combat loneliness and isolation? T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. others. First, the media’s coverage of the topic Jeremy Nobel is a faculty member of the Social connections have a profound is welcome. As global awareness rises, Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical influence on risk for mortality and are the stigma of feeling lonely and isolated School and founder of the UnLonely Project. associated with a 30 percent increased risk is drastically reduced. We in public of early death. In fact, loneliness can have health must be especially sensitive to long-term effects on health and is as lethal how loneliness affects specific at-risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. But health, populations, including the sick, older and certainly happiness, are more than the adults, college students, veterans, and the absence of illness. Loneliness saps vitality, marginalized. impairs productivity, and diminishes Second, solutions founded on evidence- enjoyment of life. based programming must acknowledge www.hsph.harvard.edu Loneliness affects more than one-third of loneliness and isolation as public health American adults, especially people facing issues. Public health professionals need to such challenges as the loss of a loved one, make connected communities achievable. major illness, the return from military That means empowering workplaces, service, or marginalization because of schools, community centers, places of minority or immigrant status. People worship, and even the local coffee shop www.unlonelyproject.org suffering from chronic or major illness can with programs and tools that bring people be lonely and isolated as these disorders together in meaningful ways. And primary