The relative importance of friendship to happiness increases with age

Happiness is predicted by social relationships in general and contact frequency in particular. This study aims to examine if the relative importance of social contacts with the closest family/relative, friend, and neighbor in happiness changes with advancing age. We used data for all participants aged 19 years and older (n = 229,099) in the 2019 Community Health Survey, which measured the frequency of contact with the closest relative/family, neighbor, and friend among a representative sample of Koreans between August 16 and October 31, 2019. The Shapley value decomposition method was used to measure the relative importance of each predictor of happiness. Overall, contact frequency was positively associated with happiness (p<0.001). The relative importance value of contact with the closest family, neighbor, and friend to happiness increased from 4.70%, 3.98%, and 7.35%, respectively, in the 19–29 years group to 8.09%, 4.44%, and 11.00%, respectively, in the 60 years and older group. Frequent interactions with the closest friend could have a greater impact on happiness in old age than those with the closest family and neighbor.