Loneliness is almost 80% associated with the risk of depressive symptoms - large-scale study
Kyiv • UNN
A new study of 100,000 people from seven countries has found a link between loneliness and depression. The impact of loneliness on depression differs significantly between Asian and Western countries, and smoking and alcohol are important risk factors.
One of the new aspects of the depression risk study is the large number of people analyzed and the diversity of countries.
Writes UNN with reference to Nature Human Behavior.
Details
Single people are about 80% more likely to suffer from depression than those who are married.
This is evidenced by the results of a new study involving 100,000 people from seven countries. Previous studies have had similar results. However, one of the new aspects of the latest study is the large number of people analyzed and the diversity of countries. This made it possible, for example, to observe that loneliness does not pose such a high risk of depression in Asian countries such as South Korea or Indonesia, unlike in the United States or the United Kingdom.
The effect on divorced or separated people was also investigated, as well as the relationship with cultural norms of marriage and the management of negative emotions that affect mental health.
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“Eastern cultures tend to tolerate higher levels of emotional stress... This may partially explain the lower risk of developing depressive symptoms in unmarried participants from these countries,” explains Kefeng Li from the Macau Polytechnic University in China.
An important “mediating” aspect to the development of depression is represented by the habit of smoking and a predisposition to alcoholism.
In addition to the complexities of physiological and cultural factors and the interaction between them, important differences across countries were observed.
While in South Korea, alcohol explained 34.1% of the risk of depression among the unmarried, in Mexico it explained only 3.2%. However, alcohol was not considered a significant factor in the United States or Ireland.
As for smoking, it explains the risk of depression in 43.8% of single people in China and 22.1% in Mexico. But there was no effect of smoking on single people in the United States and Ireland.
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