AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts in medicine on COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.
Featured topic and speakers
Do older adults get lonely? How often do doctors feel lonely? What does long-term isolation do to a person? How often do adults feel lonely? How can loneliness be addressed?
What does loneliness look like in older adults? Our guest is Ved V. Gossain, MD, the immediate past chair of the AMA Senior Physician Section, joins to discuss the epidemic of loneliness, how loneliness effects health and addressing physicians' loneliness. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.
- Watch AMA Update for health care news for physicians, residents and medical students.
- Not a physician? Join the Patients Action Network.
- Learn more about experiences of ageism among senior physicians.
- Prevalence of Loneliness and Associated Factors Among Senior Physicians in the U.S. via Lifestyle Medicine journal.
- Wondering how does loneliness affect health? For more on what doctors wish patients knew about loneliness and health.
- AMA Senior Physician Section (SPS).
- Member groups and AMA sections list.
- The AMA is your powerful ally, focused on addressing the issues important to you, so you can focus on what matters most—patients. We will meet this challenge together. Join us.
- Learn more about our AMA advocacy priorities, including:
- Reforming Medicare payment
- Fighting scope creep
- Fixing prior authorization
- Reducing physician burnout
- Making technology work for physicians
Speaker
- Ved V. Gossain, MD, immediate past chair, Senior Physician Section, AMA
Transcript
Dr. Gossain: The mortality impact of social disconnection is similar to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That's even greater than being obese or being physically inactive. The harmful consequences of society that lack connection can be felt in our schools, our workplaces and even in our patient encounters.
Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Today, in recognition of Senior Physician Month, we're talking with the immediate past chair of our AMA Senior Physician Section, Dr. Ved Gossain, in East Lansing, Michigan about AMA research on social isolation and loneliness in senior physicians. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago. Dr. Gossain, welcome. It's a pleasure to have you today.
Dr. Gossain: Thank you, Todd. It's a pleasure to meet you and have an opportunity to chat with you.
Unger: Dr. Gossain, during your time as chair of our Senior Physicians Section, you and other members of the AMA team coauthored a study called, “Loneliness and Associated Factors Among Senior Physicians in the U.S.” And that study was just published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine in April. Before we get into talking about the results, I'm just curious why did you choose to study loneliness.
Dr. Gossain: Todd, it's a public health problem. It affects every age group in every socioeconomic group in the country. When we were planning this study in about 2023, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, came up with an advisory. And they called it our epidemic of loneliness and isolation.
It's an important determinant of health. One out of three adults in the U.S. feel lonely at least once a week. And one out of five adults in the U.S. feel lonely almost every day. Although it's considered to be an individual problem, social connection is an important determinant of community well-being, population health, community safety and prosperity.
Unger: Now, I've been reading that this epidemic of loneliness has real public health impact. How does loneliness affect our health?
Dr. Gossain: According to the surgeon general, again, loneliness is more than just a bad feeling. It harms both the health of individual and the society. It's associated with the greater risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia, depression, anxiety, and even premature death. The mortality impact of social disconnection is similar to that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Unger: Wow.
Dr. Gossain: That's even greater than being obese or being physically inactive. The harmful consequences of society that lack connection can be felt in our schools, our workplaces and even in our patient encounters. And that can lead to reduction in clinical effort or even departure from the practice. And we're seeing is the burnout, which may be one of the reasons—loneliness may be one of the reasons behind the burnout.
Unger: Now, you mentioned up front that loneliness affects every age group. But this study looked at the prevalence of loneliness among senior physicians, which is defined as 65 years old or older. Why did you single out senior physicians?
Dr. Gossain: Well, it's a two-part answer to your question, Todd. One is that physicians are considered to be one of the most loneliest professions. And this may be because of all the technology we have, virtual visits, telehealth—after the clinic visit, you go home and look at your EMR—leaves very little time for social interaction. And a lot of physicians are missing that.
And in the older age group, there is a higher incidence of loneliness. And that may be because of life events such as having a chronic illness or disability, maybe a divorce, maybe a death of a lovely one—a loved one. And people who live in nursing homes—again, older population.
About 28% of older adults live in the nursing homes. And they are very lonely. And we don't have any data on the loneliness in senior physicians, although the data exists amongst older adults and other health workers. So we did the study to fill up that gap.
Unger: Are there any particular remedies or concerns with the senior physician population relative to maybe other groups?
Dr. Gossain: Yeah. Knowing that the loneliness is connected to the burnout, that's one of the major concerns. And we recognize the health issues and suicidal ideations amongst the senior physicians.
Then people can take the administration. And the physicians themselves can take some measures to combat it. And for physicians who are retiring or have retired recently, these findings may help identify to help them maintain connections to prevent this loneliness and burnout.
Unger: Well, it sounds like there's an awful lot at stake here. And so let's get into the study itself. What were the key learnings there?
Dr. Gossain: Key findings of the study were, Todd, one out of five senior physicians, about 18%, is lonely. And about 4% of them are extremely lonely. And there are several important risk factors that showed up. And one was that people who live in the rural areas, in the age group of 65 to 72, people who are divorced, widowed or single, or if they're suffering from a chronic disability, and those who do not have any hobbies or interests outside.
And it's important to note that half of the participant senior physicians with high loneliness scores were still practicing. So this is not just a phenomenon of retired physicians. It's affecting all the senior physicians because that was the population that we studied.
Unger: Well, that's clearly a challenge. And the question, I guess, is what do you do about this?
Dr. Gossain: There's a lot that can be done about it, Todd, from the personal and social support networks to prevent loneliness amongst physicians. Health care organizations can create tailored support systems, greater opportunities to increase meaningful interactions.
Patients and doctors can develop employee resource groups, allowing longer time for patient visits, sponsor social and physical activities, encourage and pay for conferences, support through policy changes by investing in the infrastructure that promotes green space, walkability, gathering in public spaces, develop guidelines for social connections and individual awareness and self-care. Having said all that, Todd, the important point I want to make is we still need a lot more research to focus on the issues of loneliness amongst physicians, particularly the senior divisions.
Unger: Listening to that list, it made me think of how much someone like you, who's been a long time AMA member and a member of the Senior Physicians Section, gets out of that relationship with the AMA and your colleagues. Is that something you found personally?
Dr. Gossain: Yes, it's been a very rewarding experience. I've been a member of AMA since 1985. That means I'm letting my age out, but that's OK. And I've been very actively involved in the AMA business for the last 10 years. Initially, I was a member but not very active. And it's been a very rewarding experience.
Unger: Well, this research that you've completed is a really huge contribution to an important problem. Dr. Gossain, thank you so much for sharing this research with us and for the work that you and others are doing on behalf of senior physicians. We'll be sure to put a link to the complete study in the description of this episode, as well as many other AMA resources that are available to senior physicians.
The AMA will also be issuing a related report called, “Experiences of Ageism Among Senior Physicians, A Qualitative Study.” And that report should be out at the beginning of this month, so we'll be sure to add a link to it in the description once it's available.
If you found this discussion valuable, you can support more programming like it by becoming an AMA member at ama-assn.org/joinnow. And once you're a member, we encourage you to look at the many sections that AMA has available, including the AMA Senior Physicians Section.
That wraps up today's episode and we'll be back soon with another AMA Update. Be sure to subscribe for new episodes and find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
Subscribe to AMA Update
Get videos with expert opinions from the AMA on the most important health care topics affecting physicians, residents, medical students and patients—delivered to your inbox.
