“Social isolation,” Dr. Syme says, “must be considered a significant risk factor for serious illness. By the same token, close social ties must be considered protective.” The Barbra Streisand song says, “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” They're also the healthiest.
Close social ties also explain the remarkably low rate of heart disease in Roseto. The town was founded in 1882 by a close-knit group of immigrants from southern Italy. Over the decades, they retained their traditions of family closeness, devoted church-going, neighborliness, three-generations households, membership in particular social organizations and marriage to other Italian-Americans, often people from Roseto or towns nearby. The same could not be said for East Stroudsburg, which was a more fragmented “American” town.
Over time, of course, even close-knit Roseto became Americanized. Starting in the 1950s, young people began leaving, three-generations households gave way to more one-generation nuclear families, and suburbanization took more residents to new homes on the outskirts of town. This largely destroyed the culture around Roseto's main street, Garibaldi Avenue, where neighbors had traditionally kept their doors open and frequently dropped in on one another. As the community's tight social structure slowly unraveled, its death rate from heart disease rose, but Roseto's residual cohesion kept its death rate considerably below East Stroudsburg's.
A lack of social ties also helps explain why Type-A behavior – the high-stress lifestyle characterized by ambition, hostility and time pressure – puts people at increased risk for heart disease, says Dr. Syme. “What kind of people are socially isolated? One obvious group is the hard-driving type whose preoccupation with achievement leaves little if any time for family, friends and other social connections.” he says.
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