ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2009
Social comparisons and health: can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The association between income inequality and adult mental health at the subnational level-a systematic review.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The association of relative deprivation, interpersonal relationships, and problematic social media use in 39 countries/regions: Does school contextual inequality matter?Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Structural drivers of health among transgender women in the United States: A nationwide study.Health & place · 2025Article
- Subjective social status and health among older adults in China: the longitudinal mediating role of social trust.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Exploring the relationship between multiple dimensions of subjective socioeconomic status and self-reported physical and mental health: the mediating role of affect.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The Moderating Effects of Social Media Activities on the Relationship Between Effort-Reward Imbalance and Health and Wellbeing: A Case Study of the Oil and Gas Industry in Malaysia.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Influence of changes in the Spanish labor market during the economic crisis (2007-2011) on perceived health.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2018Article
- The shape of the association between income and mortality in old age: A longitudinal Swedish national register study.SSM - population health · 2016Article
- Fine particulate matter exposure and olfactory dysfunction among urban-dwelling older US adults.Environmental research · 2016Article
- Comparative health and self-rated health are equivalently associated with health indicators among older adults.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2016Article
- Changes in Self-Rated Health During the Transition to Retiring Living Among Medicare Managed-Care Recipients.Journal of housing for the elderly · 2016Article
- Exploring geographic variation in US mortality rates using a spatial Durbin approach.Population, space and place · 2015Article
- Do race, neglect, and childhood poverty predict physical health in adulthood? A multilevel prospective analysis.Child abuse & neglect · 2014Article
- U.S. internal migration and occupational attainment: Assessing absolute and relative outcomes by region and race.Population research and policy review · 2014Article
- Do post-migration perceptions of social mobility matter for Latino immigrant health?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2014Article
- The effects of childhood SNAP use and neighborhood conditions on adult body mass index.Demography · 2012Article
- Primary Healthcare Organization and Quality-of-Life Outcomes for Persons with Chronic Disease.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2012Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Do richer friends and neighbors improve your health through positive material effects, or do they make you feel worse through the negative effect of social comparison and relative deprivation? Using the newly available National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) data set that reports individuals' income positions within their self-defined social networks, this paper examines whether there is an association between relative position and health in the US. Because this study uses measures of individuals' positions within their self-defined social groups rather than researcher-imputed measures of relative position, I am able to more precisely examine linkages between individual relative position and health. I find a relationship between relative position and health status, and find indirect support for the biological mechanism underlying the relative deprivation model: lower relative position tends to be associated with those health conditions thought to be linked to physiological stress. I also find, however, that only extremes of relative position matter: very low relative position is associated with worse self-rated physical health and mobility, increased overall disease burden, and increased reporting of cardiovascular morbidity; very high relative position is associated with lower probabilities of reporting diabetes, ulcers, and hypertension. I observe few associations between health and either moderately high or moderately low positions. This analysis suggests that the mechanism underlying the relative deprivation model may only have significant effects for those at the very bottom or the very top.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.