The Role of Social Networks in Health

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the social environment, composed also by social networks, influences health and what the role is. There is a reciprocal influence on that relation: as the networks can influence health, the health of a person contributes to networking with special features (may be groups of self‐help from trained individuals with the same health problem). Social networks have health effects, creating social support, access to health resources and social participation on welfare issues. Informal play a fundamental role in social support of people with little or no support systems. We must not, therefore, forget the importance that networks have to offer an effective social support by providing, for example, the needed caregivers, especially in the case of the chronically ill. An overall analysis is appropriate in addition to having a look at sociological type, and also considers epidemiological data. It’s what we do in our text. By integrating sociological aspects with ones purely epidemiological, we attempt to show how social networks have an effective role in the social determinants of health. This paper will try to develop the topic with a multi‐disciplinary approach focusing on the integration of the two disciplines.