Social Network Characteristics and Body Mass Index in an Elderly Korean Population

Lee, Won Joon; Youm, Yoosik; Rhee, Yumie; Park, Yeong-Ran; Chu, Sang Hui; Kim, Hyeon Chang

The group of social network structure and the communica- tion frequency as an index of network activation were further analyzed for the association with BMI in the men and women (Table 3) . After adjusting for age, education, smoking, alcohol drinking, depression score, comorbidity (hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and arthritis), and communication frequency, the men with lower density (<0.71) and higher size (4-6) had a higher BMI (β=1.089, p=0.037) than the men with higher density (>0.83) and lower size (1-2), but this was not the case in the women (β=0.391, p=0.393). In contrast, after adjusting for potential confounders and social network structure, the lower tertile of communication frequency was associated with a higher BMI in the women (β=0.885, p=0.049), but not in the men (β=0.702, p=0.140). In the women, less education was prominently related with a higher BMI among potential confounders.