Research Findings

 The findings reviewed below on the relationship between

social support and mortality are derived primarily from

prospective studies with varying sample sizes. Among the

findings are results from two large prospective investiga-

tions (Berkman & Syme, 1979; House, Robbins, & Metzner, 1982)

and an analysis (Blazer, 1982, 1983) of data collected during

the validation of the Older Americans Resources and Services

(OARS) at Duke University. Reports on the role of socio-

economic status and mortality of individuals with cancer are

also briefly considered in this section.

Social support

 Social networks, host resistance, and mortality were

evaluated (Berkman & Syme, 1979) in a nine-year follow-up

survey of 3725 men and women ages 30-69 studied by the 1965

Human Population Laboratory, Alameda County, California.

Each of the four sources of social contact studied was found

to predict mortality independently of the other three. The

strongest predictors were the more intimate ties of marriage

and contact with friends and relatives.

 Marriage, contacts with close friends and relatives,

church membership and informal and formal group associations

made up the four categories of social contact studied by

Berkman and Syme. According to the authors, with few

exceptions, respondents with each type of social tie had