Function and Structural Elements of Social Connection Tied to Premature Mortality

MONDAY, Dec. 18, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Both functional and structural components of social connection are independently associated with adverse health outcomes, including mortality, according to a study published online Nov. 10 in BMC Medicine.

Hamish M.E. Foster, from University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined associations between functional and structural components of social connection and mortality. The analysis included 458,146 participants in the U.K. Biobank, with data linked to mortality registers.

The researchers found that during a median 12.6 years of follow-up, all social connection measures were independently associated with both all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. Having friends/family visit less often than monthly was associated with a higher risk for mortality, indicating a threshold effect. Compared with daily friends/family visits and not living alone, there was higher all-cause mortality risk seen for daily visits and living alone, for never having visits and not living alone, and for never having visits and living alone. There was an interaction observed between functional and structural components. Compared with participants defined as not isolated by both components, those characterized as isolated by both components had higher cardiovascular disease mortality (hazard ratio, 1.63) than each component alone (functional isolation: hazard ratio, 1.17; structural isolation: hazard ratio, 1.27).

"We show that separate measures of different components of social connection may contribute different levels of risk of adverse health outcomes, and the combined associations and interactions of the measures examined here suggest that those who live alone with additional concurrent markers of structural isolation may represent a population who could benefit from targeted support," the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text