Rangan Chatterjee

Social isolation presents a health risk that exceeds the health consequences of smoking.

"about how social isolation is, you know, it's a health risk superior to smoking, you know, in fact in terms of its health consequence." (said at 0:40:22)

The claim overstates the scientific evidence. Landmark meta-analyses by Holt-Lunstad and colleagues demonstrated that social relationships and social isolation carry mortality risks comparable to established risk factors such as smoking (often benchmarked as comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day) and exceeding factors like physical inactivity and obesity. However, the literature does not establish that social isolation's health risk exceeds or is superior to the overall health consequences of cigarette smoking.

• partial: Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. (PLoS medicine 2010) · cited 7313x in the literature

  "The influence of social relationships on risk for mortality is comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality." (abstract, conclusions, passage verified)

  pubmedfull study (doi)
• partial: Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. (Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 2015) · cited 5945x in the literature

  "Across studies in which several possible confounds were statistically controlled for, the weighted average effect sizes were as follows: social isolation odds ratio (OR) = 1.29, loneliness OR = 1.26, and living alone OR = 1.32, corresponding to an average of 29%, 26%, and 32% increased likelihood of mortality, respectively." (abstract, results, passage verified)

  pubmedfull study (doi)
• context: Benchmarking Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Smoking: Challenges and Opportunities for P… (American journal of epidemiology 2023) · cited 28x in the literature

  "Leaders in health systems, research, government, and popular media have since claimed that the harms of social isolation and loneliness are comparable to that of cigarette smoking. Our commentary examines the basis of this comparison. We suggest that comparisons between social isolation, loneliness, and smoking have been helpful for raising awareness of robust evidence linking social relationships and health. However, the analogy often oversimplifies the evidence" (abstract, passage verified)

  pubmedfull study (doi)