[vasco]

My dismissive but practical take is "well yeah there's nobody in the room to call an ambulance when you have the heart attack you'll most likely have", which mindfulness classes and support groups don't help with. There's practical benefits to having people around.

[JackFr]

There was a funny statistical artifact I read once (well, for some value of 'funny') that home was a terrible place to have a heart attack, because people are willing to 'just lie down and see how I feel' rather than in a restaurant or movie theater where an ambulance will be called.

[arandr0x]

It would be interesting then for similar studies to add a dimension in addition to self-reported loneliness on self-reported time spent outside the home. While it's likely that sedentary elders are lonelier, it's not a 100% overlap (some elders live with close family and some lonely people are still very physically active/outside). You would expect lonely, active people to have lower death rates than lonely, sedentary people with similar pre-existing conditions under your hypothesis, and it would be a powerful thing to prove because it's a lot easier to make people go out than to make them make friends.

[stackbutterflow]

Then what about work from home? Does it increase mortality?

[Qem]

I bet any change in mortality due to increased isolation is offset by decreased deaths due to traffic acidents.

[IMSAI8080]

Or related: there's no one to nag you about going to get that funny ache checked out. Men particularly are notoriously reluctant to go to a doctor for various reasons but a worried partner might persuade them.

[AnimalMuppet]

When this happens to us, my wife says, "This is another reason why married men live longer."

She's not wrong...

[AndrewKemendo]

By these statistics there aren’t enough healthy people to provide care for those that are less healthy

The challenge here is that healthy people don’t desire to be around unhealthy people.

Society provides no incentive or social benefit for otherwise healthy people to be around the unwell to call the ambulances. Even as a nurse, hospice worker or caregiver, the pay/benefits are non existent for the amount of emotional and physical labor needed for care.

[Y_Y]

You don't have to be that healthy to call an ambulance! As long as not everyone in the sick-and-poor commune has a heart attack at the same time this should be a safe enough system.

[e_y_]

Ambulances are expensive enough that people are hesitant to call them, sometimes even in life threatening situations.

And if the person is unsure whether the situation is critical, they might try to "sleep it off" rather than driving or getting a ride, because ER is also kind of expensive and you could be stuck there all day.

[Qem]

In US. But there are places with proper socialized health systems, where one must not be afraid of bankruptcy by calling an ambulance.

[hhmc]

I once did a course with a paramedic on basic aid. We were discussing choking, which is a condition that really needs a 2nd party to intervene. Someone asked what to do if you live alone (with no close neighbours) - the answer was essentially ‘good luck’

[magneticnorth]

The idea of the heimlich is to put sudden force on the diaphragm and force air upward. You can do that alone by pushing your upper abdomen against a chair back, counter, railing, whatever. Not something I've ever tried, but good to know about in case.

[inciampati]

And if you're alone it's worth running with a chair into the street to do it as visibly as possible.

[hhmc]

Sure theoretically. Outcomes are dramatically better if someone else is around

[vkou]

Most people don't know how to do a self-heimlich.

[mh-]

I know how to in theory, and I think I'm probably "above average" at calm-in-crisis, but my confidence that I'd calmly rescue myself via self-heimlich while unable to breathe is not high.

[nh23423fefe]

Dying of natural causes is ok though.

[AnimalMuppet]

Preventably dying of natural causes is kind of a waste, though.