Beware, Obesity is contagious!

wind2000 · Jul 27, 2007

Whether you are a size 4 or a 24 may depend on the friends you keep.

U.S. researchers have found evidence obesity is socially contagious and weight gain can spread from person to person through a social network in a domino effect.

The study, the first of its kind to look at how complex social environments affect obesity, revealed that a person's risk of gaining weight increases by 57 per cent if one of their friends becomes obese.

A cascade effect is seen in up to three degrees of separation, to a person's friend of a friend of a friend. Surprisingly, researchers found friends have more influence on weight than siblings or spouses.

"It's not that birds of a feather flock together, that obese people hang out with obese people and normal-weight people hang out with normal-weight people," said Nicholas Christakis, a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School and a study co-author. "We found evidence that one person's weight gain causes another person's weight gain, that they actually influence each other," he said.

People may pass health behaviours – good or bad – from person to person to person, causing the social spread of obesity, Christakis added.

"So if I eat badly, then you eat badly, and if I gain weight, you gain weight," he said.

But, he added, it's more likely that social norms are shifting over time, so that weight gain among a group of friends becomes more acceptable, which then changes attitudes about acceptable body size.

Researchers analyzed 32 years of data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study.

After two years of work they were able to recreate the social ties of more than 12,000 people in a network map and immediately found clusters of thin people and obese people.

"We were surprised that people to whom you are directly connected have such a strong effect on your obesity outcome – and how far that effect seems to spread," said study co-author James Fowler, assistant political science professor at San Diego's University of California.

It seems that friends can have as strong or a stronger effect on obesity than genes, gender, or even socioeconomic status, he said, pointing out that the results were symmetrical, that thinness is also passed through a social network.

Published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study is getting rave reviews from obesity researchers who say the findings highlight new ways of combating the obesity epidemic.

According to the Canadian Medical Association, 60 per cent of Canadians – close to 20 million – are overweight. Of these, some 5 million are obese and are at higher risk of dying from type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Diane Finegood, scientific director of the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, called the study "extremely important" and said health professionals could soon use networks to spread healthy behaviours.
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http://www.thestar.com/living/article/240014

This a a most interesting article about how your friends obesity can affect you.

brown_bear · Jul 27, 2007

oh i get it....let me go and have a go at my friend for making me gain weight -tongue2

philostrate · Jul 27, 2007

lol bbear's blaming others...shame shame-tongue2-tongue2-whistle

pinkapples · Jul 27, 2007

Ihhh....well, i always make skinny ass people and why am i not losing weight or becoming thin like them....Or, it only works for fat people...

cottoncandybabe · Jul 27, 2007

haha class tis kinda true though cause of u see em eat, ur guna want a piece lol

Victor123 · Jul 29, 2007

mm not the same for me, when im around some of my larger friends.. i think mm... good thing i don't eat as much them..

asiangang · Jul 29, 2007

cant believe friends influence more than siblings...

smallrinilady · Jul 30, 2007

but it's sooo true

Beware, Obesity is contagious!

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