Association of individual network social capital with abdominal adiposity, overweight and obesity.
BACKGROUND
Limited research has examined the association of individual trust, participation and social capital with obesity using objective measures of waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and network measures of social capital.


METHODS
Data were obtained from a representative sample of Montreal residents. Participants completed questionnaires that included a position generator for collecting network social capital data. Measures of WC, height and weight were collected by registered nurses. To estimate associations with cardiometabolic risk, data on WC for individuals with BMI between 18.5 and 34.9 were extracted for analysis (n = 291). Using a proportional odds model with clustered robust standard errors, we evaluated the association of three different measures of individual social capital with elevated and substantially elevated WC and overweight and obesity categories of BMI. These measures were then evaluated in their associations with elevated WC and BMI, adjusting for socio-demographic and behavioral covariates.


RESULTS
Network social capital was inversely associated with the likelihood of being in an elevated WC risk category (odds ratio (OR) = 0.81, 95% confidence intervals (CI: 0.69, 0.96) and higher BMI category (OR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.71, 0.92).


CONCLUSIONS
Higher individual network social capital is associated with a lower likelihood of elevated WC risk and overweight and obesity.
Moore
Spencer
S
School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University, 69 Union Street, PEC 215, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. mooresp@queensu.ca
Daniel
Mark
M
Paquet
Catherine
C
Dubé
Laurette
L
Gauvin
Lise
L
D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055105:Waist Circumference; D055815:Young Adult