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Recent research at Brigham Young University has shown that social interactions improve one's odds of survival by as much as 50 percent. Like any relationship, the ROMEO connection benefits members' physical health as well. Pollack, a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, "is that it helps them discover what women know from the time they enter kindergarten, that a sense of connectedness feels good and is good for your emotional health." "What's so nice about these groups of men," says Dr. Many ROMEOS, though, are geared to attract newcomers to a town and other people with no links to members. They have known or known of each other for at least 40 years. One of the Gabriela's foursome was a computer programmer, one was an investment banker and the others were lawyers. The ROMEO Club of Chicago, for example, is composed of 13 current or former Catholic priests, while the ROMEO Club of Bloomfield, N.J., is all musicians. They may form spontaneously because of members' common interests or associations, or they may be associated with religious groups, adult communities or senior centers. They meet for lunch or for breakfast, weekly or monthly. There are hundreds of self-proclaimed ROMEO groups across the country, some with a handful of members, some with as many as 80. Their conversation tends to be "like a barbell," as one of them put it: "We talk about politics or new movies, what's happening now, and about what we saw and did a half-century ago - and nothing in between. The four men, retirees all, have been meeting for a monthly lunch for a few years now. The foursome is part of a widespread phenomenon known as ROMEO, for Retired Old Men Eating Out.