The DOI matches its Crossref record; 79 of the 79 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Social relationships and health a flashpoint for health policy
Open accessAbstract
Social relationships--both quantity and quality--affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk. Sociologists have played a central role in establishing the link between social relationships and health outcomes, identifying explanations for this link, and discovering social variation (e.g., by gender and race) at the population level. Studies show that social relationships have short- and long-term effects on health, for better and for worse, and that these effects emerge in childhood and cascade throughout life to foster cumulative advantage or disadvantage in health. This article describes key research themes in the study of social relationships and health, and it highlights policy implications suggested by this research.
Overview
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
Verification
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?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“There is growing evidence that the number and quality of social relationships have substantial impacts on health, well-being, and longevity, and, at least in animals, on reproductive fitness.”
From Variation in the β-endorphin, oxytocin, and dopamine receptor genes is associated with different dimensions of human sociality (2017) · cites this paper as [3]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The pathway between loneliness and anxiety and depression involves psychological, biological, and social factors [77, 78].”
From The prospective association of adolescent loneliness and low resilience with anxiety and depression in young adulthood: The HUNT study (2025) · cites this paper as [78]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“Having a range of good social connections has been identified as an important aspect of successful ageing [12] and is associated with lower mortality rates [13, 14], better health outcomes [15, 16], and higher reported wellbeing [17, 18] and quality of life [19, 20].”
From Social isolation, cognitive reserve, and cognition in healthy older people (2018) · cites this paper as [16]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617 · Cited by 12,052
Social Relationships and Health
House, J. S., Landis, K. R., & Umberson, D. (1988) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.3399889 · Cited by 7,073
Self-citationBERKMAN, L. F., & SYME, S. L. (1979) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112674 · Cited by 5,341
Stress, adaptation, and disease. Allostasis and allostatic load
McEWEN, B. S. (1998) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1998.tb09546.x · Cited by 5,092
The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa066082 · Cited by 5,007
Social Relationships and Health.
Cohen, S. (2004) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.59.8.676 · Cited by 4,852
Schwarz, S. (1941) · Columbia University Press eBooks · doi:10.7312/schw92626-009 · Cited by 4,698
Yu, S. M. (1998) · Maternal and Child Health Journal · doi:10.1023/a:1021801927353 · Cited by 3,876
Stress, Coping, and Social Support Processes: Where Are We? What Next?
Thoits, P. A. (1995) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2626957 · Cited by 3,496
Ben-Shlomo, Y. (2002) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/31.2.285 · Cited by 3,038
Research works printed but not linked: 9
- 10.1093/intjepid/31.2.285 · DOI · Paper page
- 1979, American Journal of Epidemiology, 117, 1003
- 2005, Preventive Chronic Disease, 2, 1
- 10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.472 · DOI · Paper page
- 2009, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 64, 625
- 2009, America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2009
- 2009, The Healthy Marriage Initiative
- 2009, Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
- 2007, Mental Health: Strengthening Mental Health Promotion. Fact Sheet No 220
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mechanisms Linking Social Ties and Support to Physical and Mental Health
Thoits, P. A. (2011) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.1177/0022146510395592 · Cited by 4,076
Wang, J., Mann, F., Lloyd-Evans, B., Ma, R., & Johnson, S. (2018) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-018-1736-5 · Cited by 1,494
Family Relationships and Well-Being
Thomas, P. A., Liu, H., & Umberson, D. (2017) · Innovation in Aging · doi:10.1093/geroni/igx025 · Cited by 871
Self-citationThe Epidemiology of Social Isolation: National Health and Aging Trends Study
Cudjoe, T., Roth, D. L., Szanton, S. L., Wolff, J. L., Boyd, C. M., & Thorpe, R. J. (2018) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B · doi:10.1093/geronb/gby037 · Cited by 743
P4 Medicine: How Systems Medicine Will Transform the Healthcare Sector and Society
Flores, M., Glusman, G., Brogaard, K., Price, N. D., & Hood, L. (2013) · Personalized Medicine · doi:10.2217/pme.13.57 · Cited by 621
Metadata
- Authors
- Umberson, D., & Karas Montez, J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- University of Texas at Austin
- ORCID
- Umberson, Debra
- Venue
- Journal of Health and Social Behavior
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 1_suppl
- Pages
- S54-S66
- ISSN
- 0022-1465 (ISSN-L)
- 2150-6000
- PMC
- PMC3150158
- OpenAlex
- W2128149221
- Cited by
- 2,639
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 233 · 2025: 268 · 2024: 257 · 2023: 229 · 2022: 247 · 2021: 263 · 2020: 238 · 2019: 176 · 2018: 161 · 2017: 133 · 2016: 116 · 2015: 121 · 2014: 87 · 2013: 57 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 34.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Health and Social Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG026613)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD042849, T32HD007081)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- interpersonal relationships, health, social determinants of health, mental health, health behavior, mortality risk, gender differences, racial disparities, health policy
- MeSH terms
- Female, Health Policy, Health Status, Humans, Male, Social Adjustment, Social Environment, Social Support, Sociology, Medical, Stress, Psychological, Racial Groups
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
