Wide circle of friends key to mid-life wellbeing for both sexes

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/bmj-wco082112.php

Public release date: 22-Aug-2012
Contact: Stephanie Burns
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Network of relatives also important -- but only for men

Friends are equally important to men and women, but family matters more for men's wellbeing Online First doi 10.1136/jech-2012-201113

The midlife wellbeing of both men and women seems to depend on having a wide circle of friends whom they see regularly, finds research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

A network of relatives is also important—but only for men—shows the study of more than 6500 Britons born in 1958.