FRIENDS, not family, are one of the keys to a long life, a study of elderly Australians suggests.
Previous research has shown that strong social networks help older people live longer. But the work has not distinguished between contact with friends or relatives.
The latest study followed some 1500 people aged over 70. Those who at the start reported close face-to-face or phone relationships with five or more friends were 22 per cent less likely to die in the next decade than those who had reported few, distant friends. Close ties with children or other relatives had no effect (Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health, vol 59, p 538).
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Friends might help people cope in times of stress and difficulty, the team suggests. They might also encourage healthy behaviours, such as seeking help for medical symptoms. 鈥淎nd friends are perhaps less likely to be a source of negative stress, which, for some older people, their children can be,鈥� says Lynne Giles of Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, who led the work.
Close friends might even have a positive physiological effect, suggests Carlos Mendes de Leon of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in an editorial about the paper.