A new study presented at the Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Barcelona, Spain, revealed that smoking is not a social activity, being associated with increased loneliness. The research was conducted by Keir Philip, professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom.
According to the study, although it is widely known that smoking causes physical health damage, the impact of smoking on people's social health is not yet fully understood. Previous research had suggested that loneliness leads to smoking, however there had been little investigation into the reverse relationship.
The study indicates that smoking has been mistakenly considered a "social activity." However, researchers regularly observe that people with smoking-related diseases become increasingly socially isolated and lonely.
