| Title |
Online social integration is associated with reduced mortality risk
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, October 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1073/pnas.1605554113 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
William R Hobbs, Moira Burke, Nicholas A Christakis, James H Fowler |
| Abstract |
Social interactions increasingly take place online. Friendships and other offline social ties have been repeatedly associated with human longevity, but online interactions might have different properties. Here, we reference 12 million social media profiles against California Department of Public Health vital records and use longitudinal statistical models to assess whether social media use is associated with longer life. The results show that receiving requests to connect as friends online is associated with reduced mortality but initiating friendships is not. Additionally, online behaviors that indicate face-to-face social activity (like posting photos) are associated with reduced mortality, but online-only behaviors (like sending messages) have a nonlinear relationship, where moderate use is associated with the lowest mortality. These results suggest that online social integration is linked to lower risk for a wide variety of critical health problems. Although this is an associational study, it may be an important step in understanding how, on a global scale, online social networks might be adapted to improve modern populations' social and physical health. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 343 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 84 | 24% |
| United Kingdom | 31 | 9% |
| Spain | 10 | 3% |
| Australia | 8 | 2% |
| Canada | 8 | 2% |
| Japan | 7 | 2% |
| France | 5 | 1% |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1% |
| Switzerland | 4 | 1% |
| Other | 50 | 15% |
| Unknown | 132 | 38% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 223 | 65% |
| Scientists | 81 | 24% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 30 | 9% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 9 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 223 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | 2% |
| Portugal | 1 | <1% |
| Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
| Sweden | 1 | <1% |
| Senegal | 1 | <1% |
| Belgium | 1 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 213 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 59 | 26% |
| Researcher | 32 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 28 | 13% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 13 | 6% |
| Student > Bachelor | 12 | 5% |
| Other | 41 | 18% |
| Unknown | 38 | 17% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 34 | 15% |
| Social Sciences | 34 | 15% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 17 | 8% |
| Computer Science | 14 | 6% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 11 | 5% |
| Other | 56 | 25% |
| Unknown | 57 | 26% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1646. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 June 2023.
All research outputs
#6,718
of 25,768,270 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#224
of 103,690 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#75
of 319,752 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#4
of 1,019 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,768,270 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 103,690 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 319,752 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,019 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.