Social integration and risk of mortality among African-Americans: the Jackson heart study

Abstract

Objective: Evidence suggests that greater social integration is related to lower mortality rates. However, studies among African-Americans are limited. We examined whether higher social integration was associated with lower mortality in 5306 African-Americans from the Jackson Heart Study, who completed the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index in 2000-2004 and were followed until 2018.

Methods: We estimated hazard ratios (HR) of mortality by categories of the Social Network Index (i.e., high social isolation, moderate social isolation [reference group], moderate social integration, high social integration) using Cox proportional hazard models. Covariates included baseline sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, health conditions, and health behaviors.

Results: Compared with moderate isolation, moderate integration was associated with an 11% lower mortality rate (HR = 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77, 1.03), and high integration was associated with a 25% lower mortality rate (HR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.64, 0.87), controlling for sociodemographics and depressive symptoms; compared with moderate isolation, high isolation was related to a 34% higher mortality rate (HR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.00, 1.79). Further adjustment of potential mediators (health conditions and health behaviors) only slightly attenuated HRs (e.g., HR_{moderate integration} = 0.90, 95% CI 0.78, 1.05; HR_{high integration} = 0.77, 95% CI 0.66, 0.89).

Conclusion: Social integration may be a psychosocial health asset with future work needed to identify biobehavioral processes underlying observed associations with mortality among African-Americans.

Keywords: African-American; Longevity; Mortality; Social exclusion; Social integration; Social isolation; Social networks.