A meta-analysis of 50 peer-reviewed studies (77 effect sizes) examined the association between social role participation and systemic inflammatory markers across adults. Greater social integration was associated with lower inflammation (age-adjusted r = −0.037, p<0.001), with evidence of a graded dose-response pattern: those most socially integrated showed progressively lower inflammation than increasingly isolated groups. The association was weakly moderated by age, with stronger links in older samples.
Why it is interesting: Provides quantified evidence of a biological pathway linking social participation to health outcomes, a mechanism proposed but rarely measured at population scale.