[WATCH]: How Loneliness Can Infect Social Networks

This is theVOA Special English Health Report. Loneliness has been linked to depression and other health problems. Now, a study says it can also spread. A friend of a lonely person was fifty-two percent more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. And a friend of that friend was twenty-five percent more likely to do the same. Earlier findings showed that happiness, obesity and the ability to stop smoking can also spread like infections within social groups. The findings all come from a major health study in the American town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study began in nineteen forty-eight to investigate the causes of heart disease. Since then, more tests have been added, including measures of loneliness and depression. The new

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