A massive new study says loneliness can quietly erase nearly six years of healthy living from your life.
Story Snapshot
- Researchers at Tulane University tracked 277,489 adults and found loneliness combined with social isolation cuts years of healthy living short.
- Men who were both lonely and isolated lost about 5.8 years free of mental illness; women lost about 3.7 years.
- Both sexes also lost years free of physical disease, with women losing more than men on that measure.
- The findings, published in Nature Communications, add to decades of research tying social disconnection to worse health and shorter life.
What The Tulane Study Actually Found
A team from Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine followed 277,489 adults for a first-of-its-kind look at how loneliness and social isolation affect healthy years lived, not just total years. The study, published in Nature Communications, found people facing both problems together lost close to six years of disease-free, mentally sound living compared to those with strong social ties.
The damage was not evenly split between the sexes. Men who reported both loneliness and social isolation lost roughly 5.8 years free of mental disorders. Women in the same situation lost about 3.7 years. On the physical side, women lost 2.4 years free of disease while men lost 1.7 years, showing the toll shows up differently depending on sex.
The Numbers Get Worse With Age And Combination
Researchers broke the risk down by age too. At age 40, people who dealt with loneliness alone lost about 0.81 years of life expectancy. Social isolation alone cost 1.02 years. But when both struck at once, the loss jumped to 2.21 years, a clear sign that stacking these two problems does far more harm than either one by itself.
Coverage of the study outside the United States echoed the same warning. A European outlet summarizing the research noted that, on average, loneliness and social isolation together cost people around six disease-free years, based on data drawn from adults between ages 40 and 69. That range matters because it captures people in their working and family-raising years, not just retirees.
This Fits A Pattern Public Health Researchers Have Warned About For Years
The Tulane numbers did not appear out of nowhere. A broad body of research already links loneliness and isolation to higher risk of death, heart disease, stroke, and dementia. One widely cited review of loneliness and social isolation as risk factors found being socially connected raises survival odds by as much as 50 percent, a number researchers have compared to the protective effect of quitting smoking.
Other large studies back up the pattern with hard numbers. A meta-analysis focused on social isolation and death found a 33 percent higher risk of dying from any cause among isolated adults, a gap that held up across different populations and study designs. Taken together with the Tulane findings, the evidence points to a consistent, measurable cost tied to disconnection rather than a one-off statistical fluke.
Why The Losses Differ By Sex And What It Means For Families
Other researchers digging into sex differences have found men often take a harder hit on life expectancy overall when isolation and loneliness combine, even as women show steeper losses on certain physical health measures. One study found men losing 4.61 years of residual life expectancy at age 45 under both conditions, reinforcing that this is not a one-size-fits-all problem.
Associations of loneliness, social isolation and healthy lifestyle with life expectancy free of major physical disease and mental disorder – Nature Communications https://t.co/kEJT26GZQH
— Dr. David L. Katz (@DrDavidKatz) September 28, 2026
For families and communities, the message is straightforward. Strong relationships are not a soft, feel-good extra. They function as a measurable health resource, on par with diet or exercise in the size of their effect. Churches, neighborhood groups, and extended family networks that conservatives have long championed as the backbone of a healthy society now have hard data behind them, showing that showing up for one another literally buys people healthy years of life.
Sources:
mindbodygreen.com, news.tulane.edu, link.springer.com, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
