Lonely people are more likely to smoke. Here’s why

In a recent study, researchers discovered a causal link between the prolonged experience of loneliness and smoking. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable premature death, with thirty times as many people who die suffering serious smoking-related illnesses such as cancer, heart and respiratory disease. We found evidence to suggest that loneliness leads to increased smoking, with people more likely to start smoking, to smoke more cigarettes, and to be less likely to quit,” said co-lead author, Dr Robyn Wootton.There was evidence that being lonelier increases the likelihood of starting smoking, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and decreases the likelihood of successfully quitting.This reflects the trends observed during the pandemic - YouGov’s Covid-19 tracker suggests 2.2 million people across the UK are smoking more than they were before lockdown. Knowing whether there is a causal effect of loneliness on smoking is important for informing stop smoking services and helping people to quit “Suddenly, the whole of the UK has become more socially isolated than ever before, and for many people, this will likely increase their loneliness. We were really interested to find that loneliness decreases the likelihood of stopping smoking and we think this is a really important consideration for those trying to stop smoking during the pandemic,” said Dr Wootton.