Supportive family and friendship ties can serve different functions and thus might show different associations with an individual’s health. Particularly, older adults might show varying health benefits of different types of supportive ties depending on their marital and retirement status. Our aim is to analyze relationships between different types of supportive social ties and autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, a physiological indicator of health that can help to establish the biological plausibility of the association—measured by heart rate variability (HRV). We present cross-sectional linear regression analyses of a German cohort of community-dwelling older adults (2008–2010; n = 1,548; mean age = 68.7 years). Our findings indicate that supportive friendship ties show significant positive associations (i.e., higher HRV) in individuals that are either not married or above retirement age. Supportive family ties show significant positive associations in individuals below retirement age. Significant results vanish or are reduced after accounting for behavioral/physical and psychological/cognitive indicators. We conclude that programs supporting the development or maintenance of friendship ties might be especially beneficial in unmarried older adults and adults above retirement age.

支持性的家庭和友谊关系可以发挥不同的作用，因此可能与个人的健康表现出不同的联系。特别是，老年人可能会根据他们的婚姻和退休状况，表现出不同类型的支持性关系对健康的不同益处。我们的目标是分析不同类型的支持性社会联系与自主神经系统 (ANS) 功能之间的关系，自主神经系统 (ANS) 功能是一种健康的生理指标，可以帮助建立关联的生物学合理性——通过心率变异性 (HRV) 来衡量。我们对德国社区居住的老年人群（2008-2010；n = 1,548；平均年龄 = 68.7 岁）。我们的研究结果表明，支持性友谊关系在未婚或超过退休年龄的个人中显示出显着的正相关（即更高的 HRV）。支持性家庭关系在退休年龄以下的个人中显示出显着的积极关联。在考虑行为/身体和心理/认知指标后，显着结果消失或减少。我们得出结论，支持发展或维持友谊关系的计划可能对未婚老年人和退休年龄以上的成年人特别有益。