Loneliness Takes a Toll

THE mortality rate among unmarried persons is significantly higher than for married people in the same age groups, says Dr. James Lynch of the University of Maryland. A study of statistics on deaths from various causes in the United States indicates that mortality rates for widowed and divorced persons are particularly high.

For example, death from heart disease is two to five times higher for the unmarried. Suicides and time spent in mental institutions and prisons are much higher for unmarried persons. The study shows that bachelors had 23 times more chance of spending time in a mental institution than did married men, and unmarried women 10 times more than married women. The detention rate in prison was 20 times higher for divorced men than married men, 18 times higher for separated men, and seven times higher for widowed men.

Evidently, loneliness, without hope for a better future and without helpful and loving associations, brings mental and emotional anguish that shortens life.