India, April 22 -- Adults who reported feeling lonely had a higher risk of developing degenerative heart valve disease, even after accounting for traditional heart disease risk factors and genetics, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Valvular heart disease occurs when one of the heart's four valves stops functioning properly. According to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Report, valvular heart disease accounted for more than 440,000 deaths in the U.S. between 1999 and 2020, which is roughly the population of Oakland, California. Valvular heart disease represented 2.38% ...