The strength of family ties: A meta-analysis and meta-regression of self-reported social support and mortality

•The risk of early mortality among those with lower levels of social support is 30% higher than the risk among those with higher support.•Support from family members was more beneficial than support provided by friends.•A moderate level of social support may be enough to achieve positive results. Pe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social networks 2013-10, Vol.35 (4), p.626-638
Main Authors: Shor, Eran, Roelfs, David J., Yogev, Tamar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Family
Family environment
Family relations
Friends
Friendship
Gender
Health
Longevity
Meta-analysis
Meta-regression
Mortality
Mortality Rates
Risk
Sex Differences
Social integration. Social relations. Social participation
Social organization. Social system. Social structure
Social Support
Sociology
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Summary:•The risk of early mortality among those with lower levels of social support is 30% higher than the risk among those with higher support.•Support from family members was more beneficial than support provided by friends.•A moderate level of social support may be enough to achieve positive results. Perceived social support has long been recognized as associated with better health and longevity. However, important factors that may moderate this relationship have not been sufficiently explored. The authors used meta-analyses and meta-regressions to examine 178 all-cause mortality risk estimates from 50 publications, providing data on more than 100,000 persons. The mean hazard ratio (HR) for mortality among those with lower levels of perceived social support was 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05, 1.17) among multivariate-adjusted HRs. Meta-regressions suggest that support from family members was more beneficial than support provided by friends, and that a moderate level of support may be enough to achieve positive results. The results also show that the importance of having support increases with age. No substantial difference was found between men and women with respect to the relationship between support and mortality.
ISSN:0378-8733
1879-2111
DOI:10.1016/j.socnet.2013.08.004