Loneliness costs Netherlands €2 billion per year: Study

Netherlands residents who suffer from severe loneliness incur about 2 billion euros in extra healthcare costs per year, according a study among nearly 350 thousand Dutch by researchers at Maastricht University. They call for more attention to reducing and preventing loneliness, ANP reports.

According to the university, a tenth of Dutch people feel seriously lonely or very seriously lonely. About 40 percent of Netherlands residents experience some degree of loneliness. Many lonely people also have an unhealthy lifestyle and poorer physical- and mental health, the researchers found.

"Regardless of mental distress, people who suffer from severe- or very severe loneliness incur 40 to 50 percent higher healthcare costs up to a year later than people who do not feel lonely," the researchers said. The difference in healthcare costs is greatest among younger Dutch in the age group 19 to 40 years.