Social relationships and health

From AcaWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Citation: House, Landis/Umberson (1988) Social relationships and health. Science (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Social relationships and health
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

Recent scientific work has established both a theoretical basis and strong empirical evidence for a causal impact of social relationships on health. More socially isolated or less socially integrated individuals are less healthy, psychologically and physically, and more likely to die. For example, Cassel (1976) and Cobb (1976), from their reviews of more than 30 human and animal studies, indicated that social relationships might promote health in several ways, but emphasized the role of social relationships in moderating or buffering potentially deleterious health effects of psychosocial stress or other health hazards. However, questions have been raised about the causal direction of the association between social support and health. Prospective studies, which control for baseline health status, consistently show increased risk of death among persons with a low quantity, and sometimes low quality, of social relationships. Modest differences emerge by sex and rural vs. urban locale with marriage/widowhood having more of an effect for men than women and smaller communities providing a broader context of social integration than larger ones. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of humans and animals also suggest that social isolation is a major risk factor for mortality from widely varying causes. The mechanisms through which social relationships affect health and the factors that promote or inhibit the development and maintenance of social relationships remain to be explored. Three areas in particular need further investigation: (1) mechanisms and processes linking social relationships to health, (2) determinants of levels of "exposure" to social relationships, and (3) the means to lower the prevalence of relative social isolation in the population or to lessen its deleterious effects on health. Social relationships appear to have generally beneficial effects on health, not solely or even primarily attributable to their buffering effects, and there may be aspects of social relationships other than their social support quality that account for these effects. Current views suggest that social relationships may affect health either by fostering a sense of meaning or coherence that promotes health or by facilitating health-promoting behaviors such as proper sleep, diet, or exercise, appropriate use of alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs, adherence to medical regimens, or seeking appropriate medical care. It is important to explore further the determinants of social relationships and the effect health may have on them.