Social epidemiology and time use

Abstract

Examining disease progression and associated risk and protective factors over time is essential for epidemiology. “Over time” can be understood as discrete events in people's lives that affect their health outcomes, including exposures and behaviors. For social epidemiology, this is of interest because time spent in social situations is required to benefit from those interactions. A wide range of social relationship types has been linked to health outcomes. Social relationships take time to develop and include spending time with others. Spending time with others has been shown to lead people to adopt beliefs, priorities, and behaviors from the group. Therefore time with others influences decisions about how to spend time and, potentially, health trajectory. More research is needed on how time affects the relationships between social influence and health. This commentary explores gaps in the social epidemiology field related to time use and suggests ways to address these gaps through data collection and analyses.