How Loneliness Impacts Employees As A Social Determinant of Health

June 06, 2022 - As a social determinant of health, loneliness varies based on mental health, race, economic status, and age, but employers and employer-sponsored health plans can play a role in combatting the loneliness epidemic, according to a report commissioned by Cigna.

The report surveyed nearly 2,500 adults in the US. It was fielded from December 13 to December 19, 2021.

The results showed that physical and mental health are major factors in whether or not an individual suffers loneliness, a key social determinant of health. 

Among adults who reported having a mental health condition, 85 percent said that they were lonely. In contrast, a little more than four in ten adults who reported being in excellent or very good mental health stated that they felt lonely. A third of adults who are lonely are receiving behavioral healthcare or mental healthcare treatment.

Half of all lonely individuals are trying to improve or would like to improve their stress levels, half are working toward improving or would like to improve their anxiety, and 46 percent are improving or hope to improve depression.

“Loneliness often goes hand-in-hand with other mental health challenges,” the report shared. “As stigma and access present barriers to mental health care, responses suggest that even more lonely people struggle with a range of mental health challenges including stress, anxiety and depression, regardless of having a diagnosis or receiving treatment.”

Having physical health conditions can increase the likelihood of loneliness by 50 percent. Nearly a quarter of individuals who were lonely struggled with sleeping disorders, compared to 14 percent of non-lonely adults, and 15 percent of lonely adults struggled with weight or weight-related complications, compared to 10 percent of non-lonely adults.

People from underrepresented racial groups, such as Black or African American Adults and Hispanic adults, are more likely to be lonely. Three-quarters of Hispanic adults and nearly seven out of ten Black or African American adults reported being lonely, around ten percentage points more than the average share of the overall population.

Those with incomes of under $50,000 per year are ten percentage points more likely to be lonely than those earning over $50,000 per year.

Additionally, 41 percent of seniors ages 66 and older experience loneliness, while 79 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say that they feel lonely.

Parents and guardians—particularly mothers and single parents—are 10 percentage points more likely to say that they are lonely than non-parents. Parents and guardians are also more likely to say that they feel left out than non-parents.

Loneliness was high among both mothers and fathers, but mothers experienced a seven percentage point higher prevalence of loneliness (69 percent) than fathers (62 percent).

However, of all of the parental categories that the study analyzed, single parents were the loneliest. More than three-quarters of single parents said that they felt lonely (77 percent).

Loneliness has repercussions in the workplace, through lower productivity, higher dissatisfaction, and lower quality of performance due to health problems. Participants who reported being lonely were more likely to report that their physical health and mental or emotional health impacted their work.

The report called on employers to combat the loneliness epidemic by building social connectivity in the workplace, extending flexibility to employees, offering strong health and wellbeing benefits, and pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work environment to boost a sense of belonging among employees.

Loneliness is a social determinant of health with a broad impact and it is one that payers and employers can meaningfully address.