Are functional syndromes culture-bound?

Thure von Uexküll

pp. 13-22

in: Beatrix Pfleiderer, Gilles Bibeau (eds), Anthropologies of medicine, Wiesbaden, Vieweg+Teubner, 1991

Abstract

A nine-year follow-up-study conducted 1979 by Berkman and Syme in Almeda County (Cal.) compared the mortality of socially isolated individuals to the mortality of those with extensive social contacts. Their results, drawn from 6928 adults, show an increase in the relative risk of mortality by 2.3 in males, and 2.8 in females of the socially isolated group. And this increase was reported to be independent of life habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption, self reported physical health status, physical activity, obesity, socio-economic status and participation in preventive health services (Berkman and Syme 1979).