The World Health Organization says loneliness is a global health priority.
Now, WHO has launched a new Commission on Social Connection to tackle the issue. CNN reports that the international group aims "to address loneliness as a pressing health threat, promote social connection as a priority, and accelerate the scaling up of solutions in countries of all incomes."
The commission is co-chaired by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and African Union Youth Envoy Chido Mpemba, and includes 11 advocates and government ministers, like Ralph Regenvanu, the minister of climate change adaptation in Vanuatu, and Ayuko Kato, the minister in charge of measures for loneliness and isolation in Japan.
For the next three years, the commission will figure out how loneliness and social isolation impact physical, mental, and emotional health. According to Murthy, the risks of loneliness can be as bad as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and is greater than the effects associated with obesity and not being physically active. Global loneliness worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic when people weren’t permitted to socialize.
“[Loneliness] transcends borders and is becoming a global public health concern affecting every facet of health, wellbeing and development,” Mpemba said, per The Guardian. “Social isolation knows no age or boundaries.”
Earlier this month, a study from the Toronto Foundation revealed that residents of Toronto are lonelier than other Canadian cities. According to the report, over 50 percent of Torontonians are stressed about their and their family’s finances, and a third of them believe they are financially unstable.
