Studies // Cited work
Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review.
Level C Meta-analysis doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
What this study supports
Supports the claim that stronger social relationships were associated with a 50% increased likelihood of survival (OR 1.50), consistent across age, sex, initial health, cause of death and follow-up, strongest for complex measures of integration. It pools studies with follow-up of survival, not experiments, so it is graded C and supports association, not cause.
- Who was studied
- 148 studies with 308,849 participants linking social relationships to later mortality.
- Design
- Meta-analysis
- Level of evidence
- Longitudinal and repeated-measures studies without random assignment.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
EmpiricalLevel CConfidence HIGH
Across 148 studies with 308,849 participants, stronger social relationships were associated with a 50% increased likelihood of survival, consistently across age, sex, initial health status, cause of death and follow-up period.
- Scope
- Studies relating social relationships to later mortality.
- Caveat
- An association from non-experimental studies; it does not show that deliberately building relationships changes survival.
Last reviewed · Review due · advice-relationships-survival-association