Early November, a so-called expert hearing took place in the European Parliament in Brussels on the subject of ‘Loneliness’.
But what is that, loneliness? According to De Jong-Gierveld, “Loneliness is the subjective experience of an unpleasant or intolerable lack of (quality of) certain social relationships.”
At first glance, this seems to be a problem of the lonely individual, but it is increasingly a problem of society. It is also called the silent epidemic. Why?
Loneliness occurs in all echelons, age groups and social welfare classes. The idea that loneliness is only a problem of the elderly is outdated, it is also young people who are lonely, even more than the elderly. Young women between the ages of 16-24 are the most vulnerable to loneliness, as are marginalized groups based on ethnicity, race, and sexual preference.
Health crisis
In the US, the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murphy, recently released a report citing loneliness as a public health crisis and the numbers don’t lie! Lonely people have a 29% higher risk of heart disease, a 32% higher risk of stroke, the elderly a 50% higher risk of developing dementia and, if not enough, insufficient social connection increases the risk of premature death by more than 60%.
The costs involved are considerable. At the moment, there are no Europe-wide figures, but for the United States, for example, the cost of stress-related absences due to loneliness for employers is estimated at $154 billion.
There are no Europe-wide figures, but for Spain the social cost has been estimated at 14 billion per year or 1.2% of GDP.
Loneliness in Europe
Loneliness was put on the European agenda at the time by former MEP Judith Merkies. Together with MEP Evelyn Regner and others, she has fought to map loneliness. This has led to the pilot project “Monitoring Loneliness in Europe” in which the first Europe-wide survey on loneliness was conducted in the (27 Member States, 25,646 respondents aged 16 and over).
This study shows that 13% of Europeans feel lonely and 35% sometimes feel lonely. After the hearing, the first copy of the book written as a result of the pilot project was handed over to Evelyn Regner and Judith Merkies expressed a word of thanks.
Broad approach to loneliness
Loneliness and its approach must be tackled broadly.
During the hearing, the experts agreed that more research is needed. There seems to be a correlation between the use of social media and the feeling of loneliness. With long daily passive social media use, a feeling of loneliness can arise. However, correlation is not causality. Research is needed to see how this can be prevented.
People who are lonely are more likely to adhere to conspiracy theories and vote for populist parties. extreme voting behavior. The loneliest people are often unable to break through loneliness, they are trapped in the lonely existence.
Loneliness is not just a matter of not having anyone around you. There are indications that a lonely childhood or few friends also leads to a lonely life later in life.
Loneliness can arise because you cannot communicate, something like stuttering can already evoke a feeling of loneliness. Marginalized groups are more likely to experience loneliness and even the way in which the built environment, cities and villages, are set up can increase loneliness or when done in the right way reduce loneliness.
Loneliness can be caused by a certain event in your life: losing a job or losing a loved one. In short, loneliness is something that can arise in many ways and that affects many aspects of our society.
There are already many initiatives in the field of loneliness. The EU JRC pilot project has mapped out a number of them.
Sources:
Book: Loneliness in Europe. Determinants, Risks and Interventions (download)
Stream: Expert Hearing (Webstream)
Advisory: Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (Download)
Website: Monitoring Loneliness in the EU (Website)