Friendships may help protect women from health conditions in older age
Human connection may, in fact, help protect women from chronic health conditions in older age, according to a Queensland-led study.
The University of Queensland researchers tracked more than 7,600 Australian women aged between 45 and 50 for two decades as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.
The study went as follows: Every three years, women filled out a questionnaire, rating their levels of satisfaction with a range of relationships, including partners, family, friends, work colleagues and any other social connections.
Data also collected if they had been diagnosed with two or more of 11 chronic health conditions.
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Asthma
- Arthritis
- Cancer
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Osteoporosis
- Diabetes
The researchers found 58.3 per cent of the women had developed more than one chronic disease during the 20 years of monitoring, from 1996 to 2016.
Those with the lowest relationship satisfaction scores had the highest odds of having multiple chronic diseases.
So, make friends and keep them around because it may just prevent a serious illness.
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