What’s Public Health Got to do With… Social Connection?

May 2024

Social connection is a “vital ingredient in developing and maintaining overall health and well-being,” as well as a “social imperative” for individuals and communities, according to Dr. Paul Reed, Director of the HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. As noted in the Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory, social isolation has become a serious and pervasive problem in the U.S. and is now experienced by young people, older people, and everyone in between.

Unfortunately, the highest prevalence of social isolation is found in people who are already experiencing poor physical or mental health, who are living with a disability, who are financially insecure, and who live alone. Older adults are particularly at risk of experiencing the negative effects of social isolation, and many also experience feelings of loneliness.

As defined by CDC, social isolation is the objective lack of social connections, while loneliness is the subjective feeling of being alone regardless of social contact. Both social isolation and loneliness can contribute to negative health outcomes, including increased mortality and cardiovascular risk, as well as decreased cognitive function and worsened mental health. According to the Surgeon General’s Advisory, chronic loneliness and social isolation can increase the risk of developing dementia by about 50 percent in older adults.

Social isolation and loneliness are now considered public health issues, but the public health sector cannot solve them alone. Collaboration with other sectors and partners, including the aging services sector, transportation, housing, and recreation, is necessary to prevent and mitigate the negative health effects caused by social isolation and loneliness.

In the May 2024 AFPHS Training, speakers from Healthy Place by Design and the Foundation for Social Connection offered insight into how communities around the country are fighting social isolation and loneliness in older adults, as well as how public health organizations can help create social connected communities.

Healthy Places by Design focuses on building communities that prioritize social connection, with the understanding that social isolation is often created by upstream conditions like community design, social norms, and systemic injustices. Phil Bors, Senior Project Director at Healthy Places by Design, shared how the public health department in Brown County, Wisconsin, prioritized community connection and social cohesion in the most recent Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan. By measuring resident satisfaction, Brown County officials are now able to better understand and address community members’ needs for improved social engagement.

The Foundation for Social Connection fosters the development and implementation of models to address social isolation and loneliness by translating research into action. Morgan Marler, Innovation and Implementation Program Manager, discussed the Foundation’s Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities, a resource for local leaders to engage partners in implementing strategies to build social connection in communities.

Instead of only focusing on individual interventions, the Action Guide seeks to advance connection and belonging in communities by addressing conditions at the community, structural, relational, and transformational levels. Moreover, the Action Guide promotes collaboration and idea-sharing between local leaders around the country, serving as a hub for innovative solutions to address social isolation and loneliness.

The AFPHS 6Cs Framework offers guidance to public health organizations on how to make healthy aging a priority in their community. Here are further examples of how the Framework can guide efforts for promoting social connection in older adults:

  1. Create and lead efforts to prioritize older adults in conversations and work surrounding social isolation and loneliness.
  2. Connect and convene key partners across aging services, public health, and other sectors to build a coalition committed to building communities that are socially connected.
  3. Coordinate existing supports to produce a hub of evidence-based toolkits and accessible resources about social connection for other organizations, older adults, and their caregivers to learn from and use to combat social isolation and loneliness.
  4. Collect, analyze, and translate data on the positive health impacts of social connection.
  5. Communicate the heightened risk of social isolation and loneliness that older adults face and ensure that this population and their caregivers are well-informed on available resources for promoting social connectedness.
  6. Complement general support systems for older adults by distinguishing and addressing the additional social needs of certain groups among older adults, such as those with disabilities, those who live alone, and those who are financially insecure.

See these resources for additional information: