Social isolation refers to the relative absence of social relationships. Social scientists have studied several distinct features of social connection offered by relationships ( Smith and Christakis 2008). WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS”? Key research findings include: (1) social relationships have significant effects on health (2) social relationships affect health through behavioral, psychosocial, and physiological pathways (3) relationships have costs and benefits for health (4) relationships shape health outcomes throughout the life course and have a cumulative impact on health over time and (5) the costs and benefits of social relationships are not distributed equally in the population. This article describes major findings in the study of social relationships and health, and how that knowledge might be translated into policy that promotes population health. Adults who are more socially connected are healthier and live longer than their more isolated peers. Over the past few decades, social scientists have gone beyond evidence of extreme social deprivation to demonstrate a clear link between social relationships and health in the general population. Social isolation of otherwise healthy, well-functioning individuals eventually results in psychological and physical disintegration, and even death. Captors use social isolation to torture prisoners of war-to drastic effect.
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