STUDY: Loneliness could make your cold feel worse

Ditch the DayQuil and get a friend.

Lonely people are more likely to report worse cold symptoms, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Health Psychology.

The researchers — armed with the knowledge that loneliness is linked to poor health — had 159 healthy, largely middle-aged subjects fill out a Short Loneliness Scale about their relationships with others and a Social Network Index measuring social isolation.

They then gave participants nasal drops containing the common cold-causing rhinovirus, quarantined them in a hotel and tracked their infections’ progressions for five days — and, for what it’s worth, paid each person $1,060.

An analysis revealed that people’s “baseline loneliness” predicted the severity of the symptoms they reported after being infected.

“Compared with those who were less lonely, lonely individuals were more likely to report experiencing higher levels of cold symptoms over the course of five days in quarantine after being exposed to RV39, a common cold virus,” the authors wrote. “Put simply, lonelier people feel worse when they are sick than less lonely people.”

The findings held true, they added, after controlling for factors like age, sex, BMI, marital status, income, education, the season and depressive affect.

The researchers also suggested “the experience of loneliness” — or the perceived quality of relationships — was a stronger predictor of cold symptoms than the number of relationships.

“We looked at the quality of people’s relationships, not the quantity,” co-author Angie LeRoy said in a statement. “You can be in a crowded room and feel lonely. That perception is what seems to be important when it comes to cold symptoms.”

Per the authors, “assessing psychosocial factors such as loneliness when treating and evaluating the common cold” can help doctors better understand patients’ experiences.