We've always assumed that friends can be a powerful influence in our quest to be healthier. If your friends support your weight loss efforts, that can make the process much easier versus having to go-it alone. But new research is proving that the affect of social networks is more powerful than we might have expected. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at how social networks affect health. Researchers analyzed data from the Framingham Study (which began in 1948 to analyze the risk factors for heart disease.) They found that participants influenced each other's good and bad health behaviors just by socializing. "When a Framingham resident became obese, his or her friends were 57 percent more likely to become obese, too. A Framingham resident was roughly 20 percent more likely to become obese if the friend of a friend became obese — even if the connecting friend didn’t put on a single pound. Indeed, a person’s risk of obesity went up about 10 percent even if a friend of a friend of a friend gained weight," according to the study. The theory is that people may be able to pass along a social signal without acting on it themselves. So if you have an obese friend, even if you don't become obese yourself, that could mean you're more accepting of obesity. And those "signals" could have an influence on others in your life. Obesity was only one aspect of health that appeared to be affected. The study also looked at happiness, loneliness, smoking and drinking. They all followed the same pattern- friends were more likely to exhibit similar behaviors. One interesting result from the study was that spouses didn’t appear to have as big an effect on each other as friends. According to the study, "If a male Framingham subject had a male friend who became fat, his risk doubled, but if his wife became obese, his risk was increased by only 37 percent." The researchers theorize that more often, we compare ourselves to people of the same sex when it comes to body image. My mom has been an on/off dieter for most of her life. But I notice that she gets more motivated to lose weight when her friends decide it's time to get healthy too. And when one falls off the wagon, it seems to be a domino affect. What do you think? Are you influenced (in good and bad ways) by your friends? |
More From SparkPeople
|
.png)
