By Heather Fabritze
News Editor
Visiting scholar Dr. Thomas Cudjoe, who is the Robert and Janet Meyerhoff assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, shared personal insights on social connection and isolation from his years of practice in the division of geriatric medicine and gerontology on Oct. 29.
His talk, “Taking time for Social Connection: It Matters for Our Health,” started at 6 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall with opening remarks from Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Public Health Minor Dr. Elizabeth Yost.
Her introduction detailed the many advanced degrees that Dr. Cudjoe holds in medicine, biology, public health, and social design, as well as his featured work in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and “Good Morning America.”
Although Dr. Cudjoe’s research in the field of gerontology is renowned, Dr. Yost believes the greatest benefit of his work is that it translates easily into more practical areas of life.
“This renaissance approach to education has allowed Dr. Cudjoe to leverage community-based strategies, mixed methods, and human-centered design to better understand and address the impact of social isolation,” Dr. Yost said.
Dr. Cudjoe established his primary goal for the audience early on. He asked Washington College students to identify approaches for fostering social connections even among the younger generation. While the majority of his work focuses on older communities, his research can assist with assessing risk factors of loneliness in any age group.
His first personal instance of expertise with loneliness in aging was in his childhood home with his paternal and maternal grandparents. Dr. Cudjoe described watching his maternal grandparents grow separated from their community and how the effect that it had on their cognition and way of life was detrimental to them at their late age.
“Engaging and reflecting upon these things are instrumental for me today, and I share these because I think you all want to continue to reflect upon your experiences now, because they can inform the work that you’re doing in the future,” Dr. Cudjoe said.
Looking at his prior work and interactions with patients, Dr. Cudjoe discovered that loneliness can pose just as dangerous a risk factor as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood liquids, obesity, and physical activity. Yet, social relationships were excluded from his med school training.
He cites a past patient of his named Miss B, who lived alone in a senior housing community with very few relationships or opportunities to leave her home. Over time, Dr. Cudjoe realized that not having consistent social connection was significantly harming Miss B’s wellbeing.
“I begin to think about, you know, what is my role in this piece beyond the medical, what is my role as a former caregiver of my maternal grandparents?” Dr. Cudjoe said. “What is my role as a physician, as a budding researcher, as a community member, as a human to support her and meet those needs?”
According to Dr. Cudjoe, it is important to note that loneliness and isolation are two distinct concepts. The former is a subjective feeling resulting from a person’s perceived inadequacy in relation to the relationships they share with other people. Isolation, in contrast, is an objective state of having little to no social interaction.
Senior Emma Fisher, who also wants to conduct research with elderly populations, was impressed by his level of academic knowledge and the practical experience he was able to provide.
“I didn’t know there was much of a difference between loneliness and social isolation, but I’m glad to know now how much of an impact it can have on our overall health in the long run, not just mentally, but physically too,” Fisher said.
Isolation, in particular, fluctuates over time. Dr. Cudjoe presented a graph of isolation levels on the screen, showing that people tend to go in and out of periods of isolation over the years.
While this graph may make the problem seem unavoidable, Dr. Cudjoe assures the audience that this is not the case.
“I don’t want you to leave thinking that once isolation or loneliness is present, then there’s nothing we can do about it,” Dr. Cudjoe said. “These are things that I think are modifiable.”
Primary intervention is at the heart of this process. Dr. Cudjoe describes it as a caregiving mindset that identifies people who possess risk factors through a screening process before isolation onsets. Anyone who is older or has recently gone through major life changes, for example, is at a much higher risk of loneliness.
Secondary intervention, meanwhile, focuses on decreasing the struggles of someone who is already experiencing isolation. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy distributed an advisory statement, which Dr. Cudjoe reviewed before its release in 2023, listing multiple tools to help the medical field think more deeply about preventions for social loneliness. Dr. Murphy labels the phenomenon as a genuine public health crisis: “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.”
Although his talk involved many complex and pessimistic ideas, Dr. Cudjoe argues that there is a simple solution.
“Unlike many other illnesses, what [Dr. Murphy] finds profoundly empowering about addressing loneliness is that the ultimate solution to loneliness lies in each of us,” Dr. Cudjoe said. “We can be the medicine that each other needs…I do think that connecting and understanding how people want to be connected is the way forward, and I think that if we do that, are thoughtful about it, we can really have an impact in our own lives and lives of others.”
Photo by Olivia Long.
Photo Caption: Dr. Cudjoe ended his talk with various resources that would pertain to college students struggling with loneliness.