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

All analyses were performed separately for the men and women. To gain information on the distribution of the continuous variables (age, depression score, BMI, network size, density of communication network, and average frequency of communication and meeting), we drew a histogram and calculated the minimum, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, maximum, and mean values. In order to solve the problem of non-normal distribution, we used two approaches before multiple linear regression analyses. One was the rank transforma-tion approach and the other was the tertile method. The Spearman correlation test was used to examine the possibility of multicollinearity among social network measures. Network size and density were strongly and inversely correlated in the men (Spearman correlation coefficient (rs)=-0.98, p<0.001) and women (rs=-0.97, p<0.001). We created three groups of social network structure: 'higher density (>0.83) and lower size (1-2)' , 'middle density (0.71-0.83) and size (3)' , and 'lower density (<0.71) and higher size (4-6)' (Appendix 3). Before the regression analysis, unclassified individuals (3 men and 8 women) were removed. For univariate analysis, the trend test