Bauer Kyla L, Johnson-Koenke Rachel, Fort Meredith P
Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
College of Nursing, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 Mar 1;22(3):363. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22030363.
The U.S. Surgeon General made an impactful declaration in the 2023 advisory on America's loneliness and social isolation epidemic that social connection, or human relationships, is a human need equivalent to water, food, and shelter. After witnessing the impact of social isolation measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a global urgency to better understand social connection in public health responses. However, meaningfully effective interventions for social isolation or loneliness have yet to be identified, and the consensus that social connection is an equivalent human need is unclear. To understand what social connection, oxygen, water, food, and shelter have in common regarding population health, we conducted an interdisciplinary literature review between September 2021 and October 2024, seeking to find commonalities between research literature advocating social connection as a human need critical to survival and key concepts across population health disciplines that explain how oxygen, water, food, and shelter function as human needs. We integrated the concepts of evolution, resource, environment, ecosystem, exposure science, embodiment, homeostasis, allostatic load theory, and interdisciplinary from 44 core publications to develop a unified conceptual model and definition for social connection as a human need. We believe a holistic understanding of social connection within the shared context of oxygen, water, food, and shelter can better support health researchers across a variety of disciplines to find common ground in developing evidence-based interventions within public health.
美国卫生局局长在2023年关于美国孤独与社会隔离流行情况的咨询报告中发表了一项具有重大影响的声明，即社会联系，也就是人际关系，是一种与水、食物和住所同等重要的人类需求。在目睹了新冠疫情期间社会隔离措施的影响后，全球迫切需要在公共卫生应对中更好地理解社会联系。然而，尚未确定针对社会隔离或孤独的切实有效的干预措施，而且社会联系是同等重要的人类需求这一共识也不明确。为了理解社会联系、氧气、水、食物和住所对于人群健康而言有哪些共同之处，我们在2021年9月至2024年10月期间进行了一项跨学科文献综述，试图找出主张社会联系是对生存至关重要的人类需求的研究文献与人群健康各学科的关键概念之间的共性，这些关键概念解释了氧气、水、食物和住所如何作为人类需求发挥作用。我们整合了来自44篇核心出版物中的进化、资源、环境、生态系统、暴露科学、体现、内稳态、应激负荷理论以及跨学科等概念，以开发一个统一的概念模型，并将社会联系定义为一种人类需求。我们相信，在氧气、水、食物和住所的共同背景下对社会联系进行全面理解，能够更好地支持各学科的健康研究人员在公共卫生领域制定循证干预措施时找到共同点。
