Social media, social support and health

New research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health throws an interesting spin on the long established link between increased social support and better health.

The study followed some 4,500 randomly selected men and women for six years. In their 40s  and 50s when the study began, none ad a history of heart disease. At the end of the study period researchers assessed the quality of participants social support and relationships, as well as whether they had angina (chest pain associated with heart disease). The findings:

-9.5% of men and 9% of women had angina

-'Worrisome/demanding' relationships with a partner or child was associated with more than 3.5 and 2 times the risk of angina, respectively.

-More distant family relations gone sour nearly doubled risk

- There was a dose-response effect: Worse relations linked to worse angina

-Similarly poor relations with friends and neighbors had no effect

-Frequent arguments with children, friends or distant family members had no effect on risk, but frequently arguing with a partner or neighbor increased risk by 44% and 60% respectively.

-The results were unchanged by adjusting for influencing health factors such as smoking and exercise and, this is really interesting, supportive relationships did not counter the detrimental effects that negative relationships appeared to have on heart health.

Naturally these findings are somewhat tenuous: They are observational and therefore fraught with potential confounders, and it is only one study. But it has the potential to add some nuance to our understanding of the role of social support, and social media support, on health.

Social support seems to be primarily reactive, building resilience and the potential to mitigate health effects of certain exposures. But can it proactively prevent those exposures by, for example, teaching us how to better manage conflict? Likewise, a factor such as resilience may also mitigate the health effects of an exposure, but may not help you avoid exposures in the first (being able to deal with your stress isn't the same as not getting stressed in the first place).

This is important because certain exposures may not be mitigated by social support, including relationship conflicts. And it makes sense that if social support manifests itself as a safe harbor or community of caring that we can retreat to, peopled by the possibly like-minded and supportive, we may not learn skills such as conflict management from them. A place to vent, be encouraged and vindicated, yes. But perhaps not a place to be challenged with deeper learning.

The lessons for social media and health run parallel. There's evidence that social media support can improve health behaviors by supporting and reminding, but does it provide active learning and the development of skills that change behavior or prevent health exposures?

What might such educational social media support look like?