The association between social relations and health outcomes is well described, but pathways are relatively poorly understood. Inflammation has been suggested as a potential physiological pathway, linking social relations to adverse health outcomes. However, previous studies have shown ambiguous results and have for the vast majority been based on studies small in sample size. The aim of the present study is to examine the association between comprehensive measures of structural and positive as well as negative functional aspects of social relations, across four relational domains—partner/spouse, children, other family and friends, and the level of systemic low-grade inflammation in a large population-based middle-aged cohort and to examine variation by gender and socioeconomic position in these associations. The study comprised of 5576 participants in the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank. The inflammatory biomarkers collected in late midlife included C-reactive protein, Interleukin-6, and TNF-alpha. Multiple linear regression models were implemented to explore associations between social relations and inflammatory measures controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic position, marital status, early major lifeevents and morbidity. Results show weak and ambiguous associations in all analyses. There were no strong indications of interaction with socioeconomic position. Concluding cautiously, men appear to be more vulnerable toward living alone and low contact frequency with family compared to women as regards high level of low-grade inflammation. In conclusion, this large-scale population-based study among middle-aged men and women showed no association between social relations and low-grade inflammation.

中文翻译：

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哥本哈根老龄化和中年生物库中社会关系和低度炎症的积极和消极方面

社会关系与健康结果之间的关联得到了很好的描述，但对途径的了解相对较少。炎症被认为是一种潜在的生理途径，将社会关系与不利的健康结果联系起来。然而，之前的研究显示出模棱两可的结果，并且绝大多数研究都是基于样本量较小的研究。本研究的目的是在四个关系领域——伴侣/配偶、孩子、其他家庭和朋友，以及系统性低水平- 级炎症在一个基于人群的大型中年队列中，并检查这些关联中性别和社会经济地位的变化。该研究由哥本哈根老龄化和中年生物库的 5576 名参与者组成。中年晚期收集的炎症生物标志物包括 C 反应蛋白、白细胞介素 6 和 TNF-α。实施多元线性回归模型来探索社会关系与控制性别、年龄、社会经济地位、婚姻状况、早期重大生活事件和发病率的炎症测量之间的关联。结果在所有分析中都显示出弱和模糊的关联。没有强烈的迹象表明与社会经济地位的相互作用。谨慎地得出结论，就高度低度炎症而言，与女性相比，男性似乎更容易独居和与家人的接触频率较低。综上所述，