Health Behaviors, Relationships and Interpersonal Spread of

Health Depends on Relationships

The powerful role of relationships in determining the health of the individual begins in infancy. During this earliest stage of our lives, we begin to form intense bonds with our primary caretakers (typically our parents). If the infant is not allowed to bond normally, its health may suffer serious adverse effects. This kind of disturbance of relationships early in life has been implicated as the causal factor in a syndrome known as “non-organic failure to thrive,” wherein the child fails to grow normally and remains small and sickly. This occurs despite a lack of any apparent organic cause. First observed by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham in their work with children separated from their parents during World War II, phenomena such as these have made the aspect of human relationships known as attachment one of the most powerful explanatory tools in the understanding of healthy child development.

Just as with infant-caregiver attachment, attachments later in life have been implicated in determining the health and survival of the individual. A careful examination of how health is related to human relationships reveals that our health is [Page 798]inextricably linked to those with whom we share our lives. For example, death in one spouse increases the risk of death in the other in what is known as the widower effect. Even hospitalization of one spouse may increase the risk of death of the other. But the widower effect may be a special case of a broader socio-medical phenomenon whereby health outcomes in one person are associated with health outcomes in those with whom that person is in a relationship. These outcomes could include not just death, but also illness, disability, and health behaviors.

Scientific attention to the role of social ties as determinants of health has increased dramatically in recent decades, and the effects of social relationships on health are ubiquitous and important. For example, greater “social support,” usually measured as more frequent contact with people with whom we have supportive relationships, is associated with lower incidence of disease and with better adjustment to specific illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease. Many of these positive effects of social support may be the result of the stress-reducing nature of receiving social support. The many stresses of everyday life contribute to illness, but the assistance and emotional support of close others tend to ameliorate that stress. In this way, our relational ties may make us resistant to the long-term effects of stress and illness on our bodies, leading to better health and longer life.

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