Social Relationships Are Key to Health, and to Health Policy 英文参考文献.docVIP

Editorial SocialRelationshipsAreKeytoHealth,andtoHealth Policy ThePLoSMedicineEditors* Evidencefromobservationalstudieshas documentedtheassociationbetweensocial relationships and beneficial effects on health outcomes, such as mortality [1]. However, the precise size of this effect, and of which aspects that form part of prevention expenditure for England cov- ering 2006/2007, and listed in the Mar- mot Review [3], interventions addressing social integration or isolation do not appearatall(thetopfiveincludematernal and child health, family planning and counseling;healthprotectionagencyfund- ing; immunization; obesity/diet/lifestyle funding; and smoking cessation services). It remains to be seen whether future governmentalill-health–prevention strate- gies will reflect the goals and priorities of this Report and include funding for the types of social interventions suggested above. macroeconomic level, the associations between social care spending and health outcomes. Their assessment clearly out- lines the inverse correlation between increased welfare spending, at a country- by-country level, and national mortality rates, an association explained in only small part by the confounding effect of overall national wealth. As Stuckler and colleagues acknowledged, the recent and urgent need to restrict spending ignores the complex interconnectivities between social care and health. Instead, they urge novelapproaches,seeingthecurrentcrisis as ‘‘….an opportunity to reorganise pro- visionofservicestothoseinneed,creating a broader set of services that reflect the increasinglycomplexneedsofasociety…’’ But what might effective services ori- ented around the core goals of reducing social isolation,andencouragingsupport- iverelationshipsinsociety,looklike?Itis daunting to acknowledge that the under- lying mechanisms are unclear through which social relationships affect health, let alone know how to design effective social interventions at a population level that will resu