As the Medical Director of the Kansas Business Group on Health I’m sometimes asked to weigh in on topics that might affect employers or employees. This is a reprint of a blog post from KBGH:
If you’ve read as much as I have in the last few days about the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ve probably come across ominous-sounding warnings about social isolation or loneliness as a result of social distancing, our preferred short-term strategy to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Social isolation is the physical state of being alone, while loneliness is the feeling you get when your social interactions don’t meet your expectations; you can feel lonely in the middle of a crowded room, but you’re only socially isolated when you’re, well, socially isolated.
But both are bad for you. A 2017 systematic review showed that social isolation was associated with a 29% increased risk of death, while subjective loneliness was associated with a near-identical 26% increase in mortality. For perspective, a second meta-analysis in 2010 showed that “…by the time half of a hypothetical sample of 100 people has died, there will be five more people alive with stronger social relationships than people with weaker social relationships.”
As we have ramped up social distancing there has been legitimate fear that we would exacerbate the already-high rates of social isolation and loneliness, especially in elderly people. While it’s too early to say if that’s happening, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at my own experience. Just yesterday this meme came across my phone:
I found it so true. Now that many of us (but not healthcare workers, first responders, food delivery people, restaurant workers, mail carriers, or a hundred other “essential service” professionals and workers) are stuck at home during the day, it seems that we’re finding new strength and resilience just from getting out and moving in our neighborhoods and green space. I’ve talked to more neighbors on walks in the last three days than I had in the last three months, and not just because of warmer weather. Could it be that COVID-19 has begun a small restoration of what physician sociologist Nicholas Christakis calls the “social suite”: love, friendship, cooperation, and teaching, all from six feet away?
The evidence of increased investment in the social contract isn’t limited to the streets in my neighborhood. Young people are volunteering in large numbers to do things like deliver meals. So many retired doctors have offered to re-enter the workforce–at significant personal risk, considering many of their ages–that the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has begun issuing emergency short-term licenses, and KAMMCO is issuing short-term liability insurance. Manufacturers in cycling, my favorite sport, are pivoting away from bike gear and toward the production of personal protective equipment. Congress is operating at a rare, near-normal level of functionality to give financial relief to millions of people (now if we could only get more testing resources). And I know that many of the readers of this blog, be they human resources professionals, insurance brokers, health administrators, or others, are working steadfastly to save as many jobs at their companies as they can in the face of an impending global economic catastrophe.
While you’re working hard on those things, don’t forget to work on these, too:
1. Look for ways to have “conversation-centric” interactions with people. Talk on the phone. Skype or FaceTime. Talk to people from your porch or from the street. As former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says, “Smiling at someone–eye contact–is an act of service.”
2. Let kids around you continue to have unstructured play time with friends. Just keep them apart. Let them run around, ride bikes, and throw sand. Don’t let them wrestle or share toys.
3. If you’re still going to work, synchronize your coffee breaks with someone else. Common socializing like this has been definitively shown to be more restorative than snacking or emailing. If you can do it outside, even better.
4. Take time to express gratitude to others. Expression of gratitude is one of the most common indicators of life satisfaction in the US.
5. Volunteer. Organizational volunteering has been shown to be associated with a 24% reduction in mortality risk.
6. If you’re lucky enough to have some money to donate, do it. Spending money on others makes us far happier than spending it on ourselves.