Does the size of your social network impact your health?

by Aimee Keenan-Greene 

For about 30 years science has noted people who have more friends and get social support are healthier and live longer. 

But few have looked at the opposite side of the coin: Can bad health affect the size of people’s social networks and their place in them?

According to a new study, the answer is yes.

The focus of the study was ill teenagers who, researchers concluded, are more isolated than other kids even if they might not realize it. 

In fact, they may even believe their friendships are stronger than they actually are. 

The research published in the current December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, examines indepth the results of a 1994-1996 survey of teenagers that asked them to name their friends. 

The study authors focused on 2,060 teens and explored the connections between them and their classmates.

It is worth noting, surveys were conducted before the Internet era made it easier for outsider kids to reach out to teens like themselves. However, the study offers insight into the role that health plays in the relationships between people, said lead author and sociologist Steven Haas.

“Health is both a cause and a consequence of how many friends you have and how many people you have to support you,” says Haas, an assistant professor at Arizona State University.

Roughly, two-thirds of teens rated their health as “excellent “or “very good.” 

The researchers looked most closely at the remaining kids, about a third, who said their health was “good,” “fair” or “poor.” 

Common ailments included asthma, obesity, deafness or blindness.

“The less healthy kids are in smaller networks over time compared to their healthier peers,” Haas said. “The kids don’t perceive themselves as having fewer friends. If you ask them to list them, they list the same number of friends as the healthy kids do. But if you ask the other kids who they’re friends with, they’re much less likely to nominate the sick kids as their friends. In essence, the sicker kids tend to overstate how strong some of their friendships are,” Haas added.

The sicker kids are also 20 percent more likely to have no friends.  The study does not say which came first for the sicker kids, isolation or poor health. 

Robert Crosnoe, a sociologist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin,  says the study suggests that school health services could have effects on high-school peer dynamics that adults find so complex and mysterious, not just health itself.

Source: Health Behavior News Service, Center for Advancing Health.