Why Loneliness Is a Public Health Crisis

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1. 12 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   3 corrections applied: The 148-study / 308,849-participant meta-analysis is Holt-Lunstad et al. 2010 (PLoS Medicine), not 2015. | The 70-study / ~3.4-million meta-analysis is Holt-Lunstad et al. 2015 (Perspectives on Psychological Science), not 2017; matches the article's own reference list. | The Masi, Chen, Hawkley & Cacioppo meta-analysis was published in 2011, not 2018; matches the article's reference list.

   Before

   Body text was already correctly fixed with all three years (2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies/308,849 participants, 2015 second meta-analysis of 70 studies/3.4 million participants, 2011 Masi et al. meta-analysis). BUT the bibliography was missing the reference entry for the 2010 PLoS Medicine paper entirely (only the 2015 Perspectives on Psychological Science paper was listed), AND the FAQ field still said: "Yes, according to a landmark 2015 meta-analysis by Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues, which pooled data from 148 studies and over 300,000 participants..." (wrongly reattaching the 148-study/308,849-participant finding to 2015 instead of 2010).

   After

   Added the missing bibliography entry: "Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316." AND corrected the FAQ to read: "Yes, according to a landmark 2010 meta-analysis by Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues, which pooled data from 148 studies and over 300,000 participants..."

   Why: The body text already correctly distinguished the 2010 (148-study, PLoS Medicine) and 2015 (70-study, Perspectives on Psychological Science) Holt-Lunstad meta-analyses, and the 2011 Masi et al. date. But the bibliography was missing the 2010 paper's reference entry, and the invisible FAQ (JSON-LD) field still conflated the 148-study finding with the wrong year (2015 instead of 2010). Fixed both the bibliography and FAQ, and verified via re-fetch that the correct 2010 reference entry is present and no stale 2015/148-study conflation remains anywhere in the post.

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