British study: Family bonding helps improve health

San Francisco: A new study reveals that spending time with family members helps improve overall health.

A joint research team from the Universities of Kent, Nottingham Trent and Coventry in Britain collected data on more than 13,000 people from 122 countries regarding social gatherings during the first wave of the Corona pandemic.

This study, published by the scientific journal "Science Advances", aims to measure the impact of social cohesion within close circles such as family and friends, as well as broader social circles such as the state, government, and humanity in general, on health behaviors, mental health, and other elements of public safety.

And it was found through the study that family bonding helps to engage in positive health behaviors, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, and observing social divergence, compared to cohesion with other social circles.

The study showed, for example, that 46% of people with strong family relationships are keen to wash hands “a lot”, compared to 32% among those who do not have strong relationships with their family members, and that 54% of those who do not have strong relationships with family members were not. They never wear face masks.

Although people who enjoy strong relationships with their family members did not represent more than 27% of the total samples included in the study, they constituted 73% of those who adhere to social distancing, 35% of those who are keen on washing hands, and 36% who wear face masks “a lot.” ".

The study also proved that strong relationships, whether at the level of close or distant social circles, are associated with an improvement in the mental health and general safety of individuals, and that the stronger the relationships between members of social groups, the greater their chances of engaging in healthy behaviors, and the less psychological problems such as anxiety, stress and depression.

And the website “Medical Express”, which specializes in medical research, quoted the researcher, Martha Neeson, who specializes in humanities at the University of Kent, as saying: “This study demonstrated the general need for belonging, and that association with different social groups encourages the improvement of healthy behaviors, including belonging to abstract groups such as country or government.