Feeling depressed or lonely can age us faster than smoking, researchers say

The study demonstrated that psychological factors, such as feeling unhappy or being lonely, add up to 1.65 years to a person’s biological age. Photograph: Kittiphan Teerawattanakul/Getty Images/EyeEm

Feeling unhappy, depressed or lonely could speed up the ageing processes more than smoking or even certain diseases, researchers have suggested.

While everyone has an age based on their date of birth – their “chronological age” – they also have what is known as a “biological age”, based on the ageing of the body’s functions, influenced by genetics, lifestyle and other factors. Studies have previously suggested the higher the biological age, the higher the risk of various diseases, and the risk of death.