Background 
The quality and quantity of individuals' social relationships has been linked not only to mental health but also to both morbidity and mortality.
Objectives 
This meta-analytic review was conducted to determine the extent to which social relationships influence risk for mortality, which aspects of social relationships are most highly predictive, and which factors may moderate the risk.
Data Extraction 
Data were extracted on several participant characteristics, including cause of mortality, initial health status, and pre-existing health conditions, as well as on study characteristics, including length of follow-up and type of assessment of social relationships.
Results 
Across 148 studies (308,849 participants), the random effects weighted average effect size was OR = 1.50 (95% CI 1.42 to 1.59), indicating a 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger social relationships. This finding remained consistent across age, sex, initial health status, cause of death, and follow-up period. Significant differences were found across the type of social measurement evaluated (p<0.001); the association was strongest for complex measures of social integration (OR = 1.91; 95% CI 1.63 to 2.23) and lowest for binary indicators of residential status (living alone versus with others) (OR = 1.19; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.44).
Conclusions 
The influence of social relationships on risk for mortality is comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality.

Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary

/pdf/social-relationships-and-mortality-risk-a-meta-analytic-2ghmxi4ksm.pdf

Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(07)61415-9.pdf

Depression, chronic diseases, and decrements in health: results from the World Health Surveys

Epidemiology of insomnia: what we know and what we still need to learn

Depression, chronic diseases, and decrements in health : results from the world health surveys. Commentary

Sex, Gender, and Pain: A Review of Recent Clinical and Experimental Findings

Epidemiology, co-morbidity, and impact on health-related quality of life of self-reported headache and musculoskeletal pain – a gender perspective

Hypertension and health-related quality of life: an epidemiological study in Sweden

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The Relationship between Health-state Utilities and the SF-12 in a General Population

Long-term benzodiazepine use : Factors of importance and the development of individual use patterns over time: A 13-year follow-up in a Swedish community

Dag Isacson

Papers

Epidemiology, co-morbidity, and impact on health-related quality of life of self-reported headache and musculoskeletal pain – a gender perspective

Hypertension and health-related quality of life: an epidemiological study in Sweden

Factors associated with adolescent use of doping agents : anabolic-androgenic steroids

The Relationship between Health-state Utilities and the SF-12 in a General Population

Long-term benzodiazepine use : Factors of importance and the development of individual use patterns over time: A 13-year follow-up in a Swedish community