Putting the ‘Social’ Into Social Determinants of Health: Why Policymaking for Improving Health Must Tackle Social Isolation and Loneliness

This article aims to explore what we know about loneliness and social isolation in the U.S. and how law and policy can play this role in being part of reducing the impact on health.  This will be approached as far as considering loneliness and social isolation-and the need for individuals to have social connection and socialization—as a social determinant of health (SDOH).  As there has been considerable attention to other SDOHs (i.e. housing, education), the impact of socializing on health has received considerably less attention until now and to assess these issues from this lens as far as the impact on health could have extraordinary ramifications moving forward.  While there are already some recognized policy challenges in this area, they cannot be utilized as a defense to sit back and simply wait for better conditions to arise before taking meaningful action that could be the difference between life and death. The research already supports that Americans are suffering at a rapid rate that will only continue to impact the health of not simply the individual, but society as a whole and will likewise have significant costs in terms of healthcare and employment spending.  While there is suggestion that law cannot “fix” these problems on its own—that much more is needed which is certainly true—that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t critically think about how to best use law and policy to tackle this problem