What is the loneliness epidemic?

Leanne Kaufman:

I am increasingly fascinated by the correlation between social, mental, and physical health. Perhaps no example of this interdependence is more pressing than the growing epidemic of loneliness that is rapidly spreading across Canada, with more than one-third of older Canadians reporting that they feel lonely at least some of the time.

According to a recent report by Women’s Age Lab at Women’s College Hospital, loneliness increases the risk for many serious chronic conditions and premature death and creates significant strain on the health and social systems. While other regions in the world have started to take action to address loneliness in meaningful ways, in Canada, we’re falling behind.

Hello, I’m Leanne Kaufman, and welcome to RBC Wealth Management Canada’s Matters Beyond Wealth. With me today is Dr. Rachel Savage, a scientist with the Women’s Age Lab at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, which happens to be partners with us at RBC Wealth Management. Amongst her many other areas of work, Dr. Savage leads research focused on promoting social connectedness in older adults and supporting aging at home.

Rachel, thanks for being here with me today to discuss the loneliness epidemic Canada’s facing and why this matters beyond wealth.

Rachel Savage:

Thanks so much for having me.

Leanne Kaufman:

So, can you give us an overview of exactly what we mean when we talk about a loneliness epidemic amongst older Canadians? How widespread is this issue, and what do you think some of the key factors are that are contributing to it?

Rachel Savage:

Well, when we call something an epidemic, what we are saying is that something’s happening more than we expect it to. And it’s a bit tricky with loneliness because we’ve only just recently started measuring it in Canada at the population level. But new data from the Canadian Social Survey shows that almost half of older adults report feeling lonely at least some of the time in 2024, with 10 percent who report always or often feeling lonely. So, this certainly seems more than what we would expect in the population.

It’s a big public health concern because we know that it has really important effects on our health and our well-being, and these effects we now have really strong evidence showing them, and that’s triggered a lot of advisories from people including the US Surgeon General, and also the World Health Organization who has declared loneliness a global public health priority.

There’s a lot of different things that are happening at different levels. At an individual level, loneliness is often triggered by key life transitions that we go through. For an older adult, some of those key transitions are

• retiring;
• having a change or a decline in health;
• losing a partner, family members; and
• sometimes taking on caregiving responsibilities for a spouse or another family member.

It also matters who we are, how accepted we are by society based on our identity. So, loneliness is often more common in immigrants, in women, gender and sexual minorities and those with disabilities.

Then at more of a societal level, there’s just a lot of different things that are happening at the same time that are creating kind of a perfect storm for loneliness.

• We’ve had the COVID-19 pandemic, which has certainly accelerated rates of loneliness.
• We have declining trends in social capital—how engaged we are civically in society, social participation.
• And our social networks are shrinking as children move away from home for work, to raise families.

So, all of these things kind of together are working in partnership to, I think, create a world where people feel more isolated.

Leanne Kaufman:

Well, I guess the positive is that we’re starting to have conversations like this one. But it’s interesting, not everyone who lives alone feels lonely. And conversely, not everyone who would identify as being lonely necessarily lives alone. So, how do we recognize some of the signs of loneliness in the older people around us, especially when we know that it’s probably something few people would openly admit to without prompting?

Rachel Savage:

Yeah, I think that’s a great question. Even though loneliness is a feeling, it definitely can produce and trigger physical symptoms and affect our behaviors and choices that we make. A lot of the signs and symptoms of loneliness overlap with those of depression and anxiety. 

• We see that people who are lonely tend to get nervous about going out or they try to avoid social events, which is actually just creating a downward spiral where they become more withdrawn.
• We also see that people who are lonely will change their daily routines, things like stopping cooking for yourself, caring about your appearance, or getting up at the time you normally would.
• People who are lonely also suffer from sleep troubles and high blood pressure, so they’re a bit more anxious, stressed and tired.

Leanne Kaufman:

Well, okay, let’s talk about some solutions. What are some of the interventions or treatments, if you will, that have maybe shown some promise in addressing loneliness amongst our older population and anything that’s been particularly effective from your perspective?

Rachel Savage:

Yeah. Well, I think another big positive is that loneliness is within our power to change. It’s modifiable, so there are opportunities to reverse this growing trend. I think at the individual level there’s a few things we can do.

The first is build more awareness around this issue, which we’re doing today, but really helping people be able to acknowledge and share their feelings with someone that they trust. Reaching out to someone is the first step to being able to address it.

Another thing we always talk about is practicing self-care. So having adequate rest, exercise, doing things that make you feel good are really important to improving your physical and emotional health.

Joining community organizations, volunteering are really powerful ways to connect with other people who are like-minded and help foster a sense of purpose.

And then prioritizing connection. I think a lot of us today are caught up in the busyness cycle where we have a million things to do, and so sometimes at the lowest end of our priority list is returning that email or calling back an old friend or prioritizing getting together with someone, but those things are really, really important.

And then I think at the community level, this is where we’re struggling a little bit more with knowing what works. There’s been a lot of research on interventions that have shown really mixed effects, but there are some promising ones.

The first is social prescribing, which is when a patient gets linked with non-clinical supports in their community. So instead of getting a prescription for a drug, you would get a prescription to go to a park or to join a certain community event or class. These programs tend to get facilitated in primary care through a link worker who would identify what people’s social needs are, and then refer them to supports in their local community. So that’s one.

And another, I think, really promising solution is thinking about how we improve our communities and strengthen connection very locally where we live. We’ve talked about naturally occurring retirement communities in the past, and that’s an area where more older adults live clustered in one area, sometimes in high-rise buildings like apartments. So, if you have a lot of people together that have the same concerns going through the same life transitions, how can we bring in supports and services to those that are all living in the same place to help strengthen connection in that building and help address their health and social needs?

So, I think those are two really promising opportunities.

Leanne Kaufman:

Yes, we’re excited about the naturally occurring retirement communities and I think some of the benefits that they can bring—loneliness certainly being one of them.

What about for those of us listening who have older adults in our lives and we might be worried about their loneliness factor or want to make sure that we’re helping them prevent it if we think that might be something that could arise in the future? Any quick practical tips for us as friends and family or members of society on helping our family and neighbours?

Rachel Savage:

Yeah. Well, you had said earlier that it can be really hard for people to say and admit to feelings of loneliness. There is still a stigma around it, but to that, I would say loneliness is a very common emotion. Often the conditions that precipitated are things that are beyond people’s individual control. I think we need to start thinking about it in a different light. There are researchers that have discussed loneliness as more of a biological adaptation process where when we feel thirsty, we drink a glass of water. When we feel lonely, it’s our body telling us we need to connect with others for our own wellbeing.

So, I would say it’s really just letting people know that we care about them and checking in on them regularly. I think that really helps us to identify people who might be feeling lonely and create a safe space for people to feel willing to share their emotions. I think when we do recognize it in family members or friends that they may be feeling lonely, offering support where we can to help them find a group with a shared interest, a volunteer opportunity, and then just letting them know that you’re there for them are really important.

Leanne Kaufman:

What about at the societal level, I mean beyond some of the things you’ve already mentioned, is there anything that you think that we need to do as a society to help better support older adults and really minimize loneliness?

Rachel Savage:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think one of the first things is we’ve got to start thinking about loneliness not as an individual problem, but as something collectively as a society that we need to tackle. Again, that’s because not all of the causes of loneliness are something that’s unique to an individual. Where we live makes a big difference. If we live in communities that are walkable, that have access to parks, that feel safe, are connected to transit, have amenities, that makes a big difference as well.

I think one thing that we’ve done at the Women’s Age Lab is bring together a lot of different organizations at different levels working across different sectors to start talking about the issue of loneliness and how we can address it by working together, again recognizing that the solutions are beyond one sector alone. So, we’ve assembled an intersectoral collaboration on loneliness, and together we’ve authored a policy brief that outlines four key recommendations for the federal government to improve social connection in Canada.

Those are firstly building a national strategy. A lot of other regions in the world have comprehensive plans, loneliness is on the policy agenda. We don’t have that same priority here in Canada, so I think that’s one of the first steps.

We’ve talked about championing the importance of social connection to the public. That includes raising awareness, confronting stigma, and helping people know where they can access supports where they need them.

I think we are starting to do a great job about measuring loneliness and deepening our knowledge through research, but there’s still a long way to go given that we’ve just sort of started doing those things.

And then I think the last major recommendation was around investing in social infrastructure. And so we have these areas [such as] naturally occurring retirement communities. We have a lot of community-based organizations that offer programs and services that strengthen social connection, like intergenerational mentoring programs. So how can we invest and grow those to help bring people together in their community?

Leanne Kaufman:

There’s so much great work happening, and we’re really delighted to be partnered with you at the Women’s Age Lab to be able to help support some of this, because I think it’s something that isn’t getting talked about enough.

So, Rachel, in our limited time together, if you hope that listeners really remembered only thing from this conversation, what would that one thing be?

Rachel Savage:

Well, I would say that we all feel lonely from time to time, but if we start to feel that way all of the time, it’s time to reach out to someone you trust and share how you’re feeling and get support to build those meaningful connections that are so important to our lives.

It’s important, again, for us to check in on the people that we care about, let them know that we’re there for them. And just be a great neighbor and stay connected within your community and be thinking about how we can strengthen those social ties.

Leanne Kaufman:

That’s great advice. Well, thank you so much, Rachel, for joining me today to help us better understand some of the signs, the consequences, and hopefully some solutions to this loneliness epidemic and why this matters beyond wealth.

Rachel Savage:

Thanks so much for having me.

Leanne Kaufman:

You can find out more about Dr. Rachel Savage at womensacademics.ca .  

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Until next time, I’m Leanne Kaufman. Thank you for joining us.

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