TLDR
People with stronger connections to family, friends, and communities were about half again as likely to stay alive during follow-up. Having several kinds of connections mattered more than simply living with someone.
Summary
This content was automatically synthesized by Credo's AI models directly from the original source text.
AI summaries can make mistakes — double-check important details against the original source.
1 Study Aim
The authors conducted a meta-analytic review (a statistical combination of results from many studies) to estimate how social relationships affect mortality (death risk). They examined whether relationship structure, support, or perceived connection best predicted survival. The study also tested whether age, sex, health, cause of death, or follow-up time changed the association. The researchers asked how strongly social relationships relate to survival and which kinds of relationships matter most.
2 Study Design
The researchers combined 148 prospective studies (studies that follow people over time) involving 308,849 participants. Participants averaged 63.9 years old, and follow-up lasted 7.5 years on average. The studies measured social networks, social integration, received or perceived support, loneliness, marital status, and living arrangements. They excluded suicide, injury, nonhuman support, and outcomes combining illness with death. Four raters independently coded study information. The authors converted results into comparable effect sizes (numbers showing the strength of an association) and used random-effects models (analyses allowing results to differ across studies). The researchers combined long-term studies to compare relationship strength with later survival.
3 Findings
The authors found that stronger social relationships were linked with a 50% greater likelihood of survival. This odds ratio (a comparison of event chances) was 1.50, with a 95% confidence interval (a range showing statistical uncertainty) from 1.42 to 1.59. The association remained similar across age, sex, starting health, cause of death, and follow-up length. Complex measures of social integration (several forms of connection and participation) showed the strongest association, with an odds ratio of 1.91. Simply living alone showed the weakest association. The authors caution that these studies cannot prove causation. They recommend measuring social well-being more carefully and testing community-based approaches that strengthen naturally occurring relationships. Staying connected in several ways was linked with better survival, but stronger proof is needed before claiming connections directly cause longer lives.