Lea Ellwardt, from the University of Cologne (Germany) and a team of collaborators bring us an interesting conclusion from a study carried out with 2911 people aged 54 to 85: a good network of personal contacts makes the risk of dying is lower when you have a certain age.
Specifically, this group of researchers was interested in analyzing what characteristics this interpersonal network must have to really protect us from mortality.
To find out these questions, they carried out seven evaluations over 20 years, which included aspects of emotions, social isolation, emotional and instrumental support, number of contacts, frequency of contacts, and number of social roles that each one assumes.
Brief evaluations of cognitive functioning were also carried out with screening tests and different aspects of mental and physical health were measured, such as the level of depression, anxiety and the ability to carry out activities of daily living, among others.
The results of the analysis of the data obtained, recently published in the journal PLOS One, (2015), showed that, regardless of variables such as cognitive, mental or physical health conditions, the key to reducing the risk of mortality was possess broad and diverse interpersonal networks.
This translates into having many contacts or friends and also in playing various roles at the social level (for example, husband, grandfather, neighbor, volunteer in an association …).
These results are in line with what other studies have found, and again point out the fundamentals of social contact and the fact of having a good network of friends that allows me to go out, chat, laugh and participate in various activities. More research is needed to find out what are the mechanisms through which having this type of social ties favors longevity.
However, we already anticipate that one of the great beneficiaries of social contact is your brain. Go out with your friends, participate in group activities and protect your brain.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
