Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : September 15, 2023 10:01 AM IST
Loneliness can put older adults at risk for many serious medical conditions.
Life expectancy rates have increased around the world, and so the prevalence of aging-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, osteoporosis, cataracts, and Alzheimer's disease. Getting older make you prone to developing digestive health disorders. Older people are also vulnerable to loneliness and depression.
A study recently published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology revealed that seniors who living with a digestive disease of some kind are more likely to experience loneliness and depression.
The study by a team of gastroenterologists and hepatologists examined the rates of loneliness, depression and social isolation in older Americans with and without digestive diseases.
Overall, 60.4% of participants with a digestive disease reported loneliness, while 55.6% of respondents without a digestive disease reported loneliness.
Severe depression was reported in 12.7% of older adults with a digestive disease as compared to 7.5% in respondents without a digestive disease.
There was no significant difference in terms of the rate of social isolation in the two groups, with 8.9% and 8.7% reported respectively.
Higher number of individuals with a digestive disease self-reported 'poor-or-fair' health than those without one. Loneliness and moderate to severe depression were linked to greater odds of 'poor-or-fair' health, as per the study results.
Michigan Medicine gastroenterologist Shirley Ann Cohen-Mekelburg encourages gastroenterologists to screen patients with digestive diseases for depression and loneliness in addition to their physical symptoms.
Loneliness can also put older adults at risk for dementia and other serious medical conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, even death.
Common digestive problems that may arise with age include constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diverticulitis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
