The connection between an active social life and physical health has long been established by psychologists. Now, however, researchers have shown that social activity (or lack of it) can affect aspects of physical health such as obesity, inflammation and blood pressure.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill used data from four large US studies that included nearly all age groups, from teenagers to the elderly, for a total of more than 14 participants, as the source of data for their analysis.
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The researchers assessed social activity on parameters such as the number of friends, marital status, participation in religious life, social activities. Participants in the study also indicated how good relationships they maintained with friends and relatives, this allowed us to assess not only the number of social contacts, but also their “quality”. Four parameters were used as markers of physical health – blood pressure, waist circumference, body mass index and the level of the so-called C-reactive protein in the blood (this protein is associated with inflammatory processes in the body). It is these indicators that allow the most accurate assessment of the risk of premature death.
“These numbers are a good demonstration of the physiological effects of exposure to chronic stress,” says study co-author Kathleen Mullan Harris, a sociologist. “Social activity is supposed to help reduce stress and reduce its harmful effects on the body.”
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Data analysis showed that in early youth and in old age, a large number of social contacts is more important for health. In adolescence, social isolation increases the risk of developing inflammatory processes to the same extent as lack of physical activity. In older people, loneliness contributes to the development of hypertension even more than diabetes.
In the middle of life, health is more important than the quantity, but the quality of communication. Kathleen Harris believes that at this age most people lead a more or less active social life, the question is whether they get support from this or just additional stress.
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The researchers emphasize that an active social life can play an important role in the prevention of various diseases. “Of course, healthy eating and physical activity are very important, but social activity and meaningful relationships with people play no less, if not more, role in maintaining good health,” sums up one of the authors of the study, sociologist Yan Claire Yan ( Yang Claire Young).1
1. Подробнее см. С. Yang et al. «Social relationships and physiological determinants of longevity across the human life span», PNAS, January 2016, vol. 113, № 3.