Low contact frequency was associated with poor health & low survival rates; but increasing the frequency of social interactions beyond a moderate level was no longer associated with better health & longevity

Is More Always Better? Examining the Nonlinear Association of Social Contact Frequency With Physical Health and Longevity. Olga Stavrova, Dongning Ren. Social Psychological and Personality Science, October 5, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620961589

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1313369677662429186

Abstract: Frequent social contact has been associated with better health and longer life. It remains unclear though whether there is an optimal contact frequency, beyond which contact is no longer positively associated with health and longevity. The present research explored this question by examining nonlinear associations of social contact frequency with health and longevity. Study 1 (N ∼ 350,000) demonstrated that once the frequency of social contact reached a moderate level (monthly or weekly), its positive association with health flattened out. Study 2 (N ∼ 50,000) extended these findings to longitudinal and mortality data: Although low contact frequency was associated with poor health and low survival rates, increasing the frequency of social interactions beyond a moderate level (monthly or weekly) was no longer associated with better health and longevity and, in some cases, was even related to worse health and increased mortality risks.

Keywords: health, mortality, social contact frequency, nonlinear effects

Discussion

Study 1 provided first evidence of a nonlinear association between social contact frequency and physical health. It showed that increasing the frequency of social contacts from yearly to monthly is associated with significant health improvement. Yet increasing the frequency of social contacts beyond this point (e.g., from monthly to daily) is associated with very little additional benefits.

Study 2

Study 1 provided the initial demonstration of the nonlinear association between contact frequency and health. Yet its use of cross-sectional data does not provide any evidence for the suggested causal direction. Therefore, in Study 2, we tested the nonlinear effect of contact frequency on health using longitudinal data. Additionally, Study 2 examined whether the nonlinear pattern extends beyond self-rated physical health to mortality.