Links between social networks and quality of life: an epidemiologically representative study of psychotic patients in South London

Quality of life has been found to be associated with social networks in patients with psychiatric disorders. We aimed to determine whether quality of life was related to social network size in a group of severely mentally ill subjects living in the community. In a population-based, prospective controlled study of two sector mental health teams in South London, a random sample of representative 1-year prevalent cases of non-organic psychosis was identified. Patients were interviewed at baseline, and associations between quality of life and social network size were analysed cross-sectionally. For average quality of life there was an increase up to a certain level of social network size (about 20 social contacts). For the quality of life subscore on social relations there appeared to be an optimal middle level of network size (10-12), with lower subscores for smaller and larger networks. Multivariate analysis confirmed the associations between quality of life and social network size. In analyses of network subgroups the importance of confiding contacts was underlined.