Processes Potentially Underlying Links to Disease Outcomes

Social support has been reliably related to lower rates of morbidity and mortality. An im-portant issue concerns the physiological mechanisms by which support influences such health endpoints. In this review, I examine evidence linking social support to changes in cardio-vascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function. Consistent with epidemiological evidence, social support appears to be related to more positive “biological profiles ” across these disease-relevant systems. Recent research on immune-mediated inflammatory processes is also starting to provide data on more integrative physiological mechanisms potentially linking social support to health. The implications of these links, along with future research directions are discussed. KEY WORDS: social support; physical health; cardiovascular function; neuroendocrine function; im-mune function; inflammation. “Adequate tests of the hypothesis that social circum-stances alter general susceptibility to disease in hu-mans will not be possible, however, until data are available on physiologic mechanisms capable of me-diating the relationship between social events and disease outcomes. ” (Berkman and Syme, 1979, p