photo: Alice/Cornelia Kopp via flickr
DCL
A new study in the online journal PLoS Medicine shows that having strong real-life social networks, in the form of good friendships and neighborhood, has decided personal health benefits.
After analyzing 148 studies on mortality and social relationships, covering over 300,000 people on four continents over a period of seven years, researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina determined that having a strong social network boosts the chance that you will be alive at any given age by 50%, as compared to people with weaker social relationship.
Influence of Relationships Bigger Than Physical Factors
The researchers note that "social relationships were more predictive of the risk of death in studies that considered complex measurements of social integration than in studies that considered simple evaluations such as marital status."
Put another way, the researchers calculated that having few friends could be as damaging as smoking or being an alcoholic.
The influence of social relationships is such that it exceeds "the influence of other risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity."
Furthermore, the overall effect of social relationships on mortality reported in this meta-analysis might be an underestimate, because many of the studies used simple single-item measures of social isolation rather than a complex measurement. Although further research is needed to determine exactly how social relationships can be used to reduce mortality risk, physicians, health professionals, educators, and the media should now acknowledge that social relationships influence the health outcomes of adults and should take social relationships as seriously as other risk factors that affect mortality, the researchers conclude.
Strong Relationships Give Sense of Purpose & Meaning
BBC News quotes lead researcher Julianne Holt-Lundstad on why have strong relationships with friends, family, colleagues and neighbors can boost wellbeing—it's quite intuitive, really: "When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks."
