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Impact of social isolation on mortality and morbidity in 20 high-income, middle-income and low-income countries in five continents
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  • Published on: 6 May 2021
    Social isolation may have different associations with fatal versus non-fatal incident CVD
    • Robert W Smith, Postdoctoral Fellow Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

    In their laudable analysis of the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study, Naito and colleagues(1) used multivariable Cox regression to examine social isolation in relation to all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, and cause-specific incidence and mortality. Drawing upon the latest evidence in the field, the purpose of this letter is to highlight three strengths of this study and propose an alternative explanation for the observed association between social isolation and CVD incidence.

    Naito and colleagues’ study contributes novel insights into potential risk factors for social isolation across high, middle and low income settings. Further, their findings in relation to all-cause and CVD mortality strengthen the literature suggesting that greater isolation is associated with increased mortality.(2) While it is unclear that the assumptions required to calculate population attributable fraction(3) are reasonably met when examining social isolation and mortality, the authors' analysis also contribute to growing evidence(4) that raises questions about the validity of the popular claim that social isolation is as bad for health as smoking.(5–8)

    Compared to less isolated participants, Naito and colleagues observed 15% increased CVD incidence among the most isolated participants (HR=1.15, 95% CI: 1.05 – 1.25).(1) The CVD incidence outcome they measured “…included fatal or non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure and ot...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.