Evidence on social ties and health habits comes from across disciplines and study populations, yet a number of common themes emerge from this work. We use a life course perspective to integrate these themes. A central image of this perspective is of developmental trajectories (e.g., health) and social convoys (e.g., relationships) intertwining over long periods to make up the individual life course (Elder et al. 2003). In this spirit, our review suggests that social ties and health behavior unfold in tandem over the entire life course. Understanding this unfolding process is an essential step toward explaining how social ties ultimately influence health.
