March 22, 2024- A new study from Mayo Clinic finds that socially isolated people are more likely to show signs of being biologically older than their age and more likely to die from a variety of causes. The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances, suggests that social connection plays an important role in overall physical health and longevity, and it should be addressed as a necessary part of the social determinants of health.
To investigate the role of social contact in biological aging, the researchers compared the Social Network Index and AI-enabled electrocardiogram (AI-ECG)-predicted age gaps of over 280,000 adults who received outpatient care between June 2019 and March 2022.