That’s how I understood it, too. From what I’ve come to learn, social health is most correlated with longevity. Despite alcohol’s negative physical effects, it appears to have net positive effects overall in terms of longevity when consumed at moderate/low doses.
This finding keeps coming up in social science research: being connected to people seems to increase longevity. Which begs the follow up question: what is the underlying mechanism(s) that causes this effect?
Does social comparison promote self maintenance? Does the sharing of ideas lead to better cognitive hygiene? Does sharing power tools lead to less household accidents? Do we need to sniff other people's pheramones?
On a sceptical note, do extraverts, the sort of people who consent to be studied, continually arrive at conclusions that justify extraversion, missing the huge cohort of introverts who are quite content with minimal social contact?
> This finding keeps coming up in social science research: being connected to people seems to increase longevity.
Has a causal relationship in that direction actually been shown in research, or just correlation?
Because it seems very likely (well, certain for at least some people based on anecdotal experience) it goes in the other direction as well, i.e. someone who has serious health issues which cause them pain or low energy levels or whatever, would likely have less of a social life than if they were completely healthy even if they were the most social person imaginable before their health issues.
If for example I were diagnosed with cancer tomorrow and died of it in ten years time, I suspect it would significantly reduce the energy I have for social activity in the next ten years, but a study done just before I die finding correlation between my not having a good social life and my impending death wouldn't change the cause of death from cancer to lack of social contact.
(FYI I'm not arguing that social activity doesn't have any positive impact on physical health / length of life, in fact I'm sure that it can - I just don't know to what extent research has or hasn't shown how much it's one way or the other.)
Having seen elderly people decline, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply that that have a help network in place when they need it. I actually have a widowed neighbor approaching 90 with limited mobility but she’s been able to stay in her home comfortably enough because we have a rotation on our block that brings her meals (eg. We feed her on Wednesday, etc). She doesn’t really need the economic support but having someone cook and prepare and clean for her at each meal is a reason many people her age would move into an assisted living facility. Despite a high degree of social contact, duration of life once entering a facility like that is pretty low. She’s across the street from me so I even go take out her trash weekly to the curb and make sure her lawn guys are keeping things up to her standards (simple stuff like “hey, can you fix that sprinkler head”)
Alcohol consumption could be something as simple as being a net positive for health in moderation after accounting for the impact of various stresses the average person encounters in life. These things are often encountered as a couple for married folks.
I think there’s been research regarding the supposed “J-curve” for alcohol consumption — essentially, the original research that led to the idea of moderate consumption being better than none failed to differentiate between people who have never had alcohol, and those who stopped drinking due to health conditions. I wouldn’t be surprised if this “couples drinking together” also has a similar bias.
