In 2025, Elena Freire Paz and a team from the University of Santiago de Compostela studied 25 older adults in Spain (Galicia and Extremadura) using interviews and home observations from November 2024 to April 2025. They explored how loneliness affects eating habits, focusing on food choices, cooking routines, and meal enjoyment.

A 2016 systematic review published in the journal Heart found that loneliness and social isolation raise your risk of heart attack by 29% and stroke by 32%—numbers comparable to the effects of light smoking or obesity. Researchers analyzed data from 23 studies involving over 181,000 adults, tracking heart attacks, strokes, angina, and cardiovascular deaths.