“The higher the level of loneliness, the greater the use of health resources,” is the conclusion resulting from a study by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP).

A study released today by FMUP to the Lusa news agency indicates that older adults experiencing severe loneliness tend to use more healthcare services. According to the research, these individuals have more consultations, more visits to the emergency room, and higher medication use.

Titled “Loneliness as a Determinant of Healthcare Service Use Among the Elderly” and published in European Geriatric Medicine, the study surveyed over 300 elderly residents in the Lower Alentejo region (Beja district).

This is “a predominantly rural, ageing, and socially vulnerable region,” explained FMUP (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto), noting that the results show that “more than half of the participants reported mild loneliness and about 15% presented levels of severe loneliness.”

“Severe loneliness was associated with an average of almost seven medications per day, about six annual consultations in primary healthcare, and two visits to the emergency room, numbers substantially higher than those observed in participants without loneliness,” added Paulo Santos, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and one of the authors of the study.

Loneliness, it can be read, “emerges as a clinical determinant that increases the demand for medical care, not due to worsening of the disease, but frequently as a way to compensate for the absence of social relationships, with potentially significant human and economic impacts.”

According to the researchers, “the failure to identify loneliness as any other risk factor contributes to the medicalisation of social suffering and to health responses that are less suited to the real needs of older people.”

Therefore, “structural changes are needed in the way loneliness is recognised and treated,” and it is necessary to reinforce “investment in transport, public spaces, community programs, and active ageing strategies.”

“Loneliness is preventable, identifiable, and has appropriate treatment,” remind the authors of the study, which involved the collaboration of doctors and researchers Ângela Mira and Cristina Galvão, from the Local Health Unit of Baixo Alentejo (ULSBA), which covers 13 of the 14 municipalities in the district of Beja.

Integrating systematic loneliness screening into healthcare and implementing social prescribing models, such as community activities, intergenerational programs, or neighbourhood groups, are two measures cited by the researchers in the study as "an effective response aligned with international evidence."

“Loneliness negatively affects the health of the elderly and puts more pressure on the healthcare system. The solution cannot be to prescribe more pills, but rather to reinforce this sense of community,” argued Paulo Santos.