Friends can make you live longer

Last updated at 13:02 16 June 2005


People do not just get by with a little help from their friends - they could actually live longer, researchers said today.

A study in Australia found that a network of good friends, rather than family, could be the key to surviving longer in old age.

The researchers, writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said that friends could affect people's behaviour in ways that improved their health as they got older.

Using data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA), the team from the University of Adelaide asked almost 1,500 over-70s about levels of contact with children, relatives and friends, either personally or over the phone.

The participants were monitored over 10 years and the researchers considered factors such as socio-economic status and lifestyle which might also influence survival rates.

They concluded that close contact with children and other relatives had little impact on survival rates over the 10-year period.

However the researchers did find that a strong network of friends and confidants significantly improved the chances of survival among those that they studied.

Those elderly people with the strongest network of friends lived longer than those with the fewest friends.

The researchers said this benefit remained unaltered even with major changes in people's lives such as the death of a partner or close relative.

They said the results may be explained by the influence friends could have on habits such as smoking, drinking and exercise.

"Friends possibly also encourage health seeking behaviour, which in turn can affect survival," the researchers said.

"Friends can have effects on depression, self efficacy, coping and morale, or a sense of personal control, possibly through social engagement by reinforcing social soles or because interactions with friends stem from choice or selectivity."