Research paper
Umberson D, Montez JK. Social relationships and health: a flashpoint for health policy. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51 Suppl:S54-66. doi:10.1177/0022146510383501
Why we cite it
Review describing ”three broad ways that social ties work to influence health: behavioral, psychosocial, and physiological”: behavioral (social ties influence health behaviors; health behavior ”explains about 40 percent of premature mortality”, a figure the review relays from McGinnis et al. 2002), psychosocial (social support, personal control, symbolic meanings, and mental health), and physiological (immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular function; allostatic load). Reviews evidence that both quantity and quality of relationships matter, that effects accumulate across the lifespan from childhood through old age, and that social relationships can also harm health through social contagion, caregiving burden, and relationship strain. Proposes six policy goals including reducing social isolation and alleviating negative relationship effects.
About the author
Debra Umberson — BA and MSW (University of Arkansas at Little Rock). MA and PhD Sociology (Vanderbilt University). University of Texas at Austin since 1985. Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts. Director, Population Research Center. Co-Director, Aging and Longevity Center. Department Chair (2000-2006). Awards: Leonard Pearlin Award (ASA), Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award (ASA, 2015), Leo G. Reeder Award (ASA Medical Sociology, 2020), Distinguished Career Award (ASA Family Section, 2020).
Jennifer Karas Montez — PhD Sociology with demography specialization (University of Texas at Austin, 2011; studied under Umberson). Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar, Harvard. Currently University Professor at Syracuse University (highest faculty title), Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies. Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Research: population health trends, state policies and health, health disparities by education and geography.