This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Teresa Kelechi about the health effects of loneliness and finding interventions to help. Dr. Kelechi is a Professor and the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Nursing at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Loneliness can have a significant impact upon health. Doctor Teresa Kelechi is here to talk about this connection and also interventions for loneliness that can make a difference. Doctor Kelechi is a Professor and the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Nursing at MUSC. Doctor Kelechi, for many years you've done research about the impact that loneliness can have, specifically on the healing of leg and foot wounds. Tell us briefly about the findings from that long-term research.
Kelechi: Yeah, we studied loneliness in a specific group of patients who had these long- term leg ulcers. Some took years to heal. And we administered a special loneliness scale and we wanted to see if people were lonely first. But secondly, if they were, how bad was it? And we found that in this sample of 40 patients, almost all of them said they were lonely and almost half of them had very high loneliness. And we found that they had a change in their biology, meaning their genes changed. And genes, as you know, are the instructional manual for the body. And these genes made their bodies so highly inflamed that their wounds were struggling to heal.
Conner: From your perspective, why is it important to assess and address loneliness?
Kelechi: Well, loneliness is considered a stressor. So, something that stresses the body is going to put it out of sort of its normal functioning. And people who have chronic conditions and they're lonely, it compounds our medical treatments. Meaning, if we're treating people with lifestyle behavioral changes and medications and we're finding they're not working, we need to dig deeper and find out if loneliness is impacting that, because emotional stress affects physical health. And, without the whole body being treated, we know that outcomes for our treatments are not going to work very well.
Conner: Well, how can loneliness actually be identified or assessed in the health care setting?
Kelechi: Well, I think the first thing is, as clinicians, we need to appreciate that loneliness is a true condition. We have years and years of research that show it changes physical health, mental health, emotional health. We have short screening questions that we ask people. We do it in research quite a bit, and it's starting to catch on in clinical practice. And those questions talk about: do you have companionship? Do you feel isolated or connected? And do you feel left out?
Conner: What sort of interventions exist to really help someone overcome loneliness?
Kelechi: There are ways that people can counteract loneliness through clinical and through their own means. We know from again, years of science and years of research that two areas are very closely linked to improved outcomes, and that is participating in group activities and something called cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a form of talk therapy. And a trained individual can help people think differently and then act differently to address their feelings of loneliness or isolation.
Conner: Doctor Kelechi, thanks for talking with us about loneliness and health.
Kelechi: You're welcome.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
