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 When their health takes a turn for the worse, however, older people
without strong social relationships may be more likely to have long
hospital stays and repeat hospitalizations, researchers report in
the American Journal of Public Health.
“It is evident that strong social relationships (i.e., large social
network, close interpersonal connection and adequate social support)
are beneficial to health and wellbeing,” said Dr. Guohua Li, a
researcher at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public
Health in New York.
“It is less clear about the mechanisms through which social
relationships affect health outcomes such as (medical complications)
and mortality,” Li, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
There are, however, many possible explanations, said Ben Lennox Kail,
a sociology and gerontology researcher at Georgia State University
in Atlanta who wasn’t involved in the study.
For starters, people with few close relationships with friends or
relatives may be more likely to suffer from depression or other
mental health issues than individuals with expansive social
networks, Kail said by email.
“People who are not particularly well socially integrated may have
poorer mental health or wellbeing, which may lead to poorer physical
health, which may make longer hospital stays and more repeat visits
more necessary,” Kail said.
“That said, if this were the primary explanation, we might expect to
see more regular doctor’s visit – and we don’t,” Kail added.
Instead, it’s possible that people without friends and family to
rely on might benefit more from longer hospital stays where they can
get extra support from nurses, Kail said. With strong social
networks, people might also have healthier habits, more reasons to
leave the house and keep active, and people in their life to remind
them to eat right, exercise, and take any prescribed medicine.
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For the study, Nicole Valtorta of Newcastle University in the U.K.
and colleagues examined data from 126 studies involving a total of
more than 226,000 people in 19 countries. Most were from the U.S.
and Canada.
Only one study was a controlled experiment designed to test whether
social relationships directly impacted health utilization. Most of
the studies examined data collected over time on outcomes like
emergency room visits, doctor checkups and hospital admissions.
Valtorta declined to comment on the study, citing an ongoing strike
over pensions at the university.
“The evidence is not quite there yet to indicate that increasing the
quantity and/or quality of older adults’ social ties will reduce
health care utilization,” said Christina Matz-Costa of the Boston
College School of Social Work.
“That is not to say that individual or population-based
interventions to strengthen social relationships and reduce
loneliness do not represent important public health strategies,”
Matz-Costa, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
People experiencing health problems often seek out close friends or
family for help, Matz-Costa said.
“When health issues arise, informal networks are often used to
obtain advice, guidance and support around how to recognize and
interpret their symptoms before seeking out formal care services,
and those who lack informal social supports for vetting their health
issues or complaints may be more likely to seek out formal
services,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2tKSRf1 American Journal of Public Health,
online February 22, 2017.
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