US surgeon general compares the risk of loneliness to smoking more than half a pack of cigarettes a day
- The US is grappling with another epidemic — loneliness.
- A report from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy found that about half of Americans are now lonely.
It's long been understood that humans are social creatures and that loneliness can have detrimental health consequences.
Now the US surgeon general says Americans are so lonely that those consequences constitute a near national health emergency.
In a report released Tuesday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says that half of Americans now feel lonely and that this "epidemic" is costing the United States billions of dollars annually. Murthy said this lack of connection for so many Americans can have the same negative health impact as smoking a dozen cigarettes a day.
"We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It's like hunger or thirst. It's a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing," Murthy said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that's not right. That's why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing."
The surgeon general's report found that those between the ages of 15 and 24 have been hit especially hard, with their time of social in-person interaction reduced by 70% in 2020 compared to the previous two decades.
There are multiple factors that have turned millennials and Gen Z into the loneliest generations, Insider previously reported. America's broken housing system, for example, forces many young people to live in areas that don't promote community involvement. The surgeon general's report noted that over the past 60 years, the number of single-person households has doubled.
A number of studies have also pointed to connections between extensive time spent on social media with worsening mental health.
The epidemic of loneliness was made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down schools and offices, forcing most people to isolate at home with limited physical connection. Many young workers continue to work from the confines of their homes even as the pandemic subsides.
Murthy said he's raising awareness of the loneliness problem because it is associated with a number of health risks, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and even premature death.
"Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis," Murthy said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.