Although social ties have the potential to benefit health, policy efforts must recognize that social ties also have the potential to undermine health, and that the link between social ties and health may vary across social groups. For example, gender, race, and age are associated with different levels and types of responsibilities, strains, and resources in social ties that then influence personal health habits as well as the health of significant others. In order to be effective, policies and interventions must account for the ways in which social constraints and resources influence health across social groups (House et al. 2008). Moreover, care must be taken to develop strategies that increase the power of social ties to enhance individual health without imposing additional strains on care providers. Thus, we suggest two additional policy components for the basic foundation suggested above:
