JACKSON — Nearly one-third of Mississippi residents 65 and older who live alone said no one checked on them during January, a survey released Tuesday shows.
Choice Mutual found 32 percent of Mississippi seniors living alone reported no check-ins since Jan. 1, an amount the company estimated represents 12,659 people statewide. The findings come as national health experts warn chronic loneliness can carry health risks comparable to heavy smoking and as some U.S. leaders have called social isolation a public health crisis.
The Choice Mutual survey of 3,025 seniors nationwide at the end of January found 26 percent overall said no one had checked on them. The survey identified Wyoming and Oklahoma at 50 percent, Louisiana at 44 percent, and Arizona and Connecticut at 42 percent as the states with the highest shares of seniors living alone who reported zero check-ins.
The survey also described a wider winter isolation trend: 68 percent of seniors living alone said they feel forgotten or invisible during winter, 29 percent said they do not have anyone to confide in during difficult times, 58 percent worry loneliness is harming their health and 62 percent said isolation affected their physical or mental health this winter. Even older adults who live with a partner were not immune; 65 percent said they sometimes feel alone.
Anthony Martin, founder of Choice Mutual, said the numbers should serve as a warning. “Loneliness is often dismissed as a soft issue, but the numbers show it’s anything but,” he said. The survey also found 28 percent of seniors said they were very likely to reach out when lonely, while 40 percent said they were unlikely or very unlikely to do so, and 64 percent said their well-being would improve if someone reached out more often.
Advocates said small acts of connection — a call, a visit or a check-in — can help address what many now view as an overlooked health threat.
