Public Health Consequences of Social Isolation and Loneliness

Loneliness carries a significant social stigma, as a lack of friendship and social ties are socially undesirable, and social perceptions of lonely people are generally unfavorable. Lonely people often have very negative self-perceptions, believing that the inability to establish social ties is due to personal inadequacies or socially undesirable attributes. The effect of loneliness on public health is obvious and validated by numerous studies. The negative effects of loneliness may include physical illness, emotional issues, and even mortality, which underline its serious effects. This collection includes chapters on loneliness as a public health issue; introduces a newly developed scale to measure loneliness in intimate relations; investigates the connection between loneliness and physical ailments; studies how COVID-19 affected the experience of loneliness; and presents approaches to reduce and manage loneliness.