College of Public Health convenes panel on a growing public health crisis—social isolation

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When George Mason University student Jawad H. first heard talk of reducing hours at the 24/7 campus dining hall, he saw more than a logisticalissue-he saw a threat to a rare space where students could connect and stave off isolation. "I ran into a friend there at 11 p.m.," he said during a recent College of Public Health panel. "By the time we finished talking, it was 3 a.m."

As a member of the Student Government at the time, Jawad helped mobilize his peers to activate to preserve the dining hall's hours-and defend its role as a social lifeline.

The theme and importance of intentional connection ran throughout "Stronger Together: The Impact of Social Ties on Public Health," an April 9 panel at George Mason's Fairfax Campus hosted by the College of Public Health. This year, the annual National Public Health Week "Conversations and Connections" event explored a growing recognition that loneliness isn't just a personal issue but a public health threat.

Moderator Dean Melissa Perry and the panelists. Photo by Mary Cunningham/CPH

"Perhaps nothing has changed more profoundly in recent years than how we interact as human beings," said Melissa Perry, dean of the College of Public Health, who moderated the panel. "We may check our phones hundreds of times a day, butgo days without a real conversation. That disconnect has real health consequences."

Two recent events helped elevate the issue: the collective isolation the world experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 2023 advisory from then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declaring loneliness "a national epidemic." Murthy's report links social isolation to a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of dementia for older adults. Loneliness, he warned, is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

"I'm glad that there's a spotlight, because … loneliness has been sort of relegated to the purview of, this is an individual's problem, as opposed to a systemic, structural problem," said Rachel Wernicke, George Mason's chief mental health officer. "We're seeing more acceptance that there's a collective responsibility for addressing this."

Panelists focused on two groups especially vulnerable to isolation: older adults and young people.

George Mason alumna Mary Louise Pomeroy, PhD Health Service Research '22, a postdoctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that 1 in 3 older adults report frequent loneliness, and around 25% are socially isolated. "What's unique about older adults," she said, "is the combination of high health needs with declining social support."

For many in this population, technology-like smartphones, video chats, or even "social robots" in nursing homes-can be critical for easing isolation.

For young people, though, technology can sometimes have the opposite effect. "Their mood is just dropping," said Wernicke, describing the impact of "passively scrolling" through social media. "But they're not actually interacting-it's the illusion of interaction."

A 2022 national surveyfound that 60% of U.S. college students reported feeling "very lonely" in the past year.

Connections won't emerge without deliberate intent, said LaToya Thomas, principal and founder of the urban planning consultancy Brick & Story, which focuses on community resilience. "We might need to do a little work, and that work is actually investing in our own inner curiosity about other humans," she said. "And that curiosity might actually help pull someone out of a state of loneliness and isolation."

Thomas pointed to tailgatesbefore football games as one example of humans creating connections from inert spaces. "There is generally nothing exciting about these parking lots," she said. But "people comeand they bring chairs, they bring paraphernalia for their teams, they bring barbecue pits, they bring music. They literally create a space where there is no space. It's really the intentionality of what we as social animals decide to do in terms of making spaces-as complex or simple as they can be-into something that is really dynamic."

Watch the full panel here,

Past "Conversations and Connections" events have covered topics including climate change and public health(2024) and violence prevention(2023).