Social connectedness affects health as strongly as smoking, obesity, and hypertension do

Evidence

After reviewing dozens of scientific studies, sociologist James House and his colleagues have concluded that the positive contributions to health made by social integration and social support rival in strength the detrimental contributions of well-established biomedical risk factors like cigarette smoking, obesity, elevated blood pressure, and physical inactivity. Statistically speaking, the evidence for the health consequences of social connectedness is as strong today as was the evidence for the health consequences of smoking at the time of the first surgeon general’s report on smoking. If the trends in social disconnection are as pervasive as I argued in section II, then “bowling alone” represents one of the nation’s most serious public health challenges. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1129

Categorization

• SEED: The comparison of social-isolation research to the pre-surgeon-general smoking evidence frames an essay: we may treat loneliness the way we once treated tobacco, only with far less public urgency.
• XREF: connects to: Social relationships serve as buffers against stress and protective factors against risk for disease. — Recent Developments in the Study of Social Relationships, Stress Responses, and Physical Health; Religious involvement correlates with improved health, longevity, and prosocial behavior — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 887; A society’s relational mobility explains cross-cultural differences in trust, well-being, and self-disclosure — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1642 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious involvement correlates with improved health, longevity, and prosocial behavior #corroborates (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 887
• A society’s relational mobility explains cross-cultural differences in trust, well-being, and self-disclosure #expands (0.70) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1642