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Older Women More Likely to Get Older With Lots of
Friends
Dec. 8, 2004- Two studies indicate that older women
with lots of friends are likely to out live their contemporaries with
smaller social networks.
Women with suspected coronary artery disease and
smaller social networks die at twice the rate of those who have a larger
circle of social contacts, according to the newest study. In a 2003
study of women age 65 and older it was found that women with larger
social networks were less likely to die at a certain age than those with
smaller social networks.
Thomas Rutledge, Ph.D., of VA San Diego Healthcare System and
colleagues, who did both studies, found that women who had more social
contacts and saw them more often also had lower blood glucose and blood
pressure levels, lower rates of smoking and other factors that reduced
their risk for coronary disease. Women with larger social networks also
showed fewer signs of artery blockage during the four-year study.
The overall magnitude of the social network effect
rivaled or exceeded that of more commonly considered biomedical risk
factors including smoking, diabetes and hypertension histories,
Rutledge and colleagues say.
However, social isolations effect on heart health
might have more to do with differences in income than anything else, the
researchers concluded. In their study of 503 older women, Rutledge and
colleagues found that annual income was statistically more important
than social network size for predicting coronary disease death rates.
Women with small social networks were also much more likely to make less
than $20,000 a year, they discovered.
Although the findings point to a link between
social isolation and low incomes, it would be unwarranted from these
results to suggest that the solution to social isolation consists of
financial handouts, Rutledge and colleagues say.
In fact, they say, coronary disease and its
disabling effects could be keeping women from making money and friends.
For this reason, interventions that improve
quality of life or symptom severity may enable women to pursue
vocational or social relationships to a greater degree, they say.
In a 2003 study of women age 65 and older, Rutledge
and colleagues found that women with larger social networks were less
likely to die at a certain age than those with smaller social networks.
The current study was supported by the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Center for Research
Resources, the Gustavus and Louis Pfeiffer Research Foundation, The
Womens Guild, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Ladies Hospital Aid
Society of Western Pennsylvania, and QMED Inc.
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