WHO decides to combat the “pandemic” of loneliness, a risk factor for global health

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the creation of a commission of experts to promote global social connection and combat loneliness, which increasingly affects a greater number of people and is already considered one of the greatest risk factors for health in various age groups.

The new Commission for Social Connection will be made up of 11 specialists and will be co-chaired by the former surgeon general of the US Government Vivek Murthy and the special envoy of the African Union for youth, Chido Mpemba (Zimbabwe), as announced by the organization in a statement.

“One in four people, and between 5 and 15% of adolescents, suffers from social isolation, with similar rates in all regions”highlights the UN health agency, warning that these figures obtained in studies may be conservative and may be much higher in reality.

“People affected by loneliness and social isolation are at greater risk of suffering from problems such as anxiety, dementia, depression, suicidal tendencies or heart attacks,” recalled in the statement the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The commission will analyze the central role that social connection plays in promoting health in people of all ages and will present programs to promote it, the WHO statement highlighted.

The Geneva-based organization warns that “the social pain of not feeling connected” It impacts all ages, compared to the traditional perception that it mainly affected older people.

The WHO assures that loneliness is already a mortality factor as high as tobacco and alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, obesity or air pollution.

The Minister of Health of Chile, Ximena Aguilera, and her counterparts from Morocco (Khalid Ait Taleb) and Sweden (Jakob Forssmed) are also part of the commission. Also the Japanese Ayuko Kato, minister of her country’s Government to combat loneliness and isolation, among other social problems.