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For older adults, having more or closer family members in one's social network decreases his or her likelihood of death, but having a larger or closer group of friends does not, finds a new study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
"We found that older individuals who had more family in their network, as well as older people who were closer with their family were less likely to die," said James Iveniuk, the lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "No such associations were observed for number of or closeness to friends."
[...] In the first wave, these older adults were asked to list up to five of their closest confidants, describe in detail the nature of each relationship, and indicate how close they felt to each person. Excluding spouses, the average number of close confidants named was 2.91, and most older adults perceived high levels of support from their social contacts. Additionally, most respondents were married, in good physical health, and reported not being very lonely.
Iveniuk and co-author L. Philip Schumm, a senior biostatistician at the University of Chicago, found that older adults who reported feeling "extremely close" on average to the non-spousal family members they listed as among their closest confidants had about a six percent risk of mortality within the next five years, compared to approximately a 14 percent risk of mortality among those who reported feeling "not very close" to the family members they listed.
Furthermore, the study found that respondents who listed more non-spousal family members in their network—irrespective of closeness—had lower odds of death compared to those who listed fewer family members. "Regardless of the emotional content of a connection, simply having a social relationship with another person may have benefits for longevity," Iveniuk said.
Iveniuk said he was surprised that feeling closer to one's family members and having more relatives as confidants decreased the risk of death for older adults, but that the same was not true of relationships with friends.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 22 2016, @07:56PM
Say it the other way;
People who live longer have more close relatives in their social network.
Or;
People who live longer have more living close relatives in their social network.
Really insightful. Normally I would reserve judgment about what factors were controlled for until I read the whole study, but the full study doesn't seem available yet?
Anyhow, we know longevity has a significant genetic component. Those with more living relatives to be close to are more likely to be in families with a stronger history of longevity. It would be interesting to see if the postulated relationship from the study correlates with closeness of genetic relationship among those named.
Of course, there's more than that -- families often have their own "cultures" that can determine a lot of environmental factors for long-term health, from particular relationships with food, diet, and exercise to psychological factors like general attitude and outlook on life (which we know can affect longevity). We're obviously not all exactly like our family members in these ways, but we're likely to be influenced by these cultural factors in all sorts of ways (often developed at very young ages).
So, if you have family members with better genes and a culture that acts in ways that promote longevity, you're more likely to still have family members around as you age to have close relationships with.
And of course there's the simple fact that family members are more likely to provide greater care as people age. Having lots of friends may be nice, but most of them aren't going to be with you on a daily basis helping to provide care as you age if you need it as a family member might.