Giving Compass' Take:

• Loneliness is becoming a major health concern as it can interfere significantly with a person's ability to heal and can increase suffering. 

• How can we foster more connections between people at both local and national levels?

• Read more about how loneliness can be detrimental to your health. 

Since stepping down as surgeon general in April of last year, Vivek Murthy has turned his attention to what he considers to be America’s fastest-growing public health crisis. No, it isn’t cardiovascular diseases or obesity or smoking or even the nation’s system of health-care delivery. Murthy is taking on a more unlikely cause: loneliness.

A groundbreaking 2010 study from Brigham Young University found that weak social connections can shorten a person’s life by 15 years -- roughly the same impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Research presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention last year showed that greater social connection corresponds with a 50 percent decrease in the risk of early death.  More than 42.6 million adults over age 45 suffer from chronic loneliness, according to an AARP survey.

Governments in some countries have begun to take action. The United Kingdom launched a national campaign to fight loneliness in 2011, an effort that Australia emulated shortly thereafter. There haven’t been similar large-scale efforts in the United States to address the health impacts of social isolation. Most of the work that is being done to combat loneliness is happening on a hyperlocal level.

As governments begin to think about this issue, they’ll be looking for policy solutions that can have a big impact. Advocates say that policy changes like that are a short-term goal. But the longer-term goal is for everyone to start looking at social interactions as an integral part of a person’s well-being, like eating well and getting enough sleep.

Read the full article about loneliness by Mattie Quinn at Governing magazine