Associations of social networks with cancer mortality: a meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
This meta-analysis integrates results of 87 studies on the associations of perceived social support, network size, and marital status with cancer survival. In controlled studies, having high levels of perceived social support, larger social network, and being married were associated with decreases in relative risk for mortality of 25%, 20%, and 12%, respectively. Moderator analyses revealed that never married patients had higher mortality rates than widowed and divorced/separated patients. Associations of social network with mortality were stronger in younger patients, and associations of marital status with mortality were stronger in studies with shorter time intervals, and in early-stage cancer. Relationships varied by cancer site, with stronger associations of social support observed in studies of patients with leukemia and lymphomas and stronger associations of network size observed in studies of breast cancer. Further randomized intervention studies are needed to test causal hypotheses about the role of social support and social network for cancer mortality.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Cancer patients with the largest network size had a reduced relative risk of mortality of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.72-0.89).
“One systematic review focusing on the risk of mortality in cancer patients found that those with the largest network size had a reduced relative risk of mortality of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.72-0.89) 44 .”
From An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness (2017) · cites this paper as [44]
The overview found an association (+) between social networks and relationships and cancer, supported by one review or multiple lower quality reviews.
“| Cancer (Pinquart & Duberstein 2010*) | | | + |”
From An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness (2017) · cites this paper as Pinquart & Duberstein 2010*
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 136 · Cited by 460
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [60]Ehlers SL Effects of depression and substance use on head and neck cancer mortality Unpublished dissertation University of Iowa 2000
- Authors
- Pinquart, M., & Duberstein, P. R.
- Affiliations
- Philipps University of Marburg (DE)
- University of Rochester Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pinquart, Martin
- Venue
- Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-08
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 122-137
- ISSN
- 1040-8428 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2910231
- OpenAlex
- W2124232192
- Cited by
- 460
- References
- 136
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 1.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R24AG031089)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K24MH072712)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Global Cancer Incidence and Screening
- Keywords
- social support, social networks, cancer mortality, marital status, network size, cancer survival, leukemia, lymphoma, breast cancer, early-stage cancer, social determinants of health
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Female, Humans, Male, Neoplasms, Prognosis, Sex Factors, Social Support, Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic, Marital Status
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
