In addition, future research will benefit from methodological considerations, including a greater focus on prospective survey designs and corresponding longitudinal analyses, dyadic information about social relationships, and qualitative data. Prospective designs are essential in order to consider how relationship/health linkages and explanatory mechanisms unfold over time. This approach fits with the life course notion that determinants of current health originate early in life and accumulate across the life span (Ben-Shlomo and Kuh 2002). Taking full advantage of prospective surveys through longitudinal data analysis and wider application of multilevel modeling could shed more light on the social processes involved in building, sustaining, and benefiting from social ties across the life course.
