News: The more friends you have, the shorter your lives

Researchers find in a new study that seeing your friends and families often won't make you live longer. From McGill University in Canada, these researchers examined ideas that social contact, or a lack thereof, is linked to mortality.

The study examined the strength of family ties and challenged long-held ideas that frequent social contact is linked to better health and longevity.  

It explored the effect of various social stressors - using data from more than 100,000 people from across the world - and found a close-knit family has little effect on your lifespan. 

And it found repeated contact with friends was more beneficial than with relatives - improving the chances of a longer life by around 7%.

But spending time with family members is actually worse for your mortality, as they can add stress to your life. 

Dr Eran Shor, who led the study, told the Independent: 'Our findings show a minimal effect of social contact frequency on mortality and call into question interventions and clinical advice that simply seek to increase one’s social contact frequency' 

Researchers at McGill said that while the majority of existing studies reported a positive link between increased contact and longevity, their own study found only a very moderate effect when considering other variables, including age and scoioeconomic status. 

He added: 'Simply associating with others may not be enough to provide emotional comfort or instrumental assistance or to push an individual to adopt a healthier lifestyle, resulting in greater longevity.

'One may have frequent social contact with others, but still feel lonely, especially if these contacts are perceived as superficial and unsatisfying.'

Earlier studies found links between relationships and better health - including a study in the US which concluded those who feel lonely are almost twice as likely to die prematurely.  

Recently, a US study found that friends know our personality so well, they could accurately predict whether we’ll die young or live to a ripe old age. 

Researchers at Washington University in St Louis made the discovery after analysing data from a study that tracked 300 young couples from their 20s to their deaths.

At the beginning of the experiment, the couples and their best friends had to answer the same questions about the couples’ personalities.

Recently, the replies were compared with how old the subjects were when they died. It was found that the friends’ impressions were a better predictor of someone’s lifespan than their own assessment.