Medical News: Social Ties May Enhance Survival – in Psychiatry, General Psychiatry from MedPage Today

Maintaining strong social relationships may help slow the approach of death, a meta-analysis showed.

In a pooled analysis of 148 studies, having strong social relationships was associated with a 50% greater likelihood of surviving through follow-up (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.59), according to Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and colleagues.

The magnitude of the association puts social relationships on a par with quitting smoking and beyond obesity and physical inactivity in terms of relationship with mortality, the researchers reported in the July issue of PLoS Medicine.