
Communicating easily and appropriately with others would play a beneficial role in our health.
Knowing how to live and interact in society is good for your health
New work published in the medical journal Health Communication suggests to promote the frequency and quality of its social interactions to guard against the harmful effects of stress and loneliness on health, mental as well as physical.
Acquired throughout life and inherited from childhood, an individual's social skills include, among other things, his ability to communicate easily and appropriately with others, to support one another, to disagree or not respond positively to unreasonable demands. They would play a beneficial role in health, says an American study led by researchers at the University of Arizona (United States).
To arrive at these conclusions, the researchers interviewed a representative panel of the American population comprising 775 adults aged 18 to 91 years. The questionnaire was designed to collect information about their social skills, their level of stress and loneliness, and their physical and mental health.
According to the results, people with disabilities in terms of different social skills reported being more stressed, feeling more lonely, and poorer physically and mentally.
"Loneliness is a recognized risk factor, as serious as tobacco, alcohol, obesity, a diet high in saturated sugars and fats or lack of exercise," says Chris Segrin, author of the study .
Loneliness is particularly good for the heart and the arteries, as previous studies show. In 2016, researchers at the University of York (UK) found that a single person had an increased risk of 29% suffering from a heart attack or angina, and 32% of have a stroke.
The study points to the harmful effect of social networks and time spent on screens, especially among young people, who, refugees in a virtual mode of communication, would become more timid and unfit for face-to-face exchanges.