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The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Alcohol consumption has important health-related consequences and numerous biological and social determinants. OBJECTIVE:To explore quantitatively whether alcohol consumption behavior spreads from person to person in a large social network of friends, coworkers, siblings, spouses, and neighbors, followed for 32 years. DESIGN:Longitudinal network cohort study. SETTING:The Framingham Heart Study. PARTICIPANTS:12 067 persons assessed at several time points between 1971 and 2003. MEASUREMENTS:Self-reported alcohol consumption (number of drinks per week on average over the past year and number of days drinking within the past week) and social network ties, measured at each time point. RESULTS:Clusters of drinkers and abstainers were present in the network at all time points, and the clusters extended to 3 degrees of separation. These clusters were not only due to selective formation of social ties among drinkers but also seem to reflect interpersonal influence. Changes in the alcohol consumption behavior of a person's social network had a statistically significant effect on that person's subsequent alcohol consumption behavior. The behaviors of immediate neighbors and coworkers were not significantly associated with a person's drinking behavior, but the behavior of relatives and friends was. LIMITATIONS:A nonclinical measure of alcohol consumption was used. Also, it is unclear whether the effects on long-term health are positive or negative, because alcohol has been shown to be both harmful and protective. Finally, not all network ties were observed. CONCLUSION:Network phenomena seem to influence alcohol consumption behavior. This has implications for clinical and public health interventions and further supports group-level interventions to reduce problematic drinking.

SUBMITTER: Rosenquist JN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3343772 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network.

Rosenquist J Niels JN Murabito Joanne J Fowler James H JH Christakis Nicholas A NA

Annals of internal medicine 20100401 7

<h4>Background</h4>Alcohol consumption has important health-related consequences and numerous biological and social determinants.<h4>Objective</h4>To explore quantitatively whether alcohol consumption behavior spreads from person to person in a large social network of friends, coworkers, siblings, spouses, and neighbors, followed for 32 years.<h4>Design</h4>Longitudinal network cohort study.<h4>Setting</h4>The Framingham Heart Study.<h4>Participants</h4>12 067 persons assessed at several time po ...[more]

PMID: 20368648

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Project description:PurposeTo examine the association of alcohol consumption and type of alcoholic beverage with incident cataract surgery in 2 large cohorts.DesignLongitudinal, observational study.ParticipantsWe included 469 387 participants of UK Biobank with a mean age of 56 years and 23 162 participants of European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk with a mean age of 59 years.MethodsSelf-reported alcohol consumption at baseline was ascertained by a touchscreen questionnaire in UK Biobank and a food-frequency questionnaire in EPIC-Norfolk. Cases were defined as participants undergoing cataract surgery in either eye as ascertained via data linkage to National Health Service procedure statistics. We excluded participants with cataract surgery up to 1 year after the baseline assessment visit or those with self-reported cataract at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations of alcohol consumption with incident cataract surgery, adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and diabetes status.Main outcome measuresIncident cataract surgery.ResultsThere were 19 011 (mean cohort follow-up of 95 months) and 4573 (mean cohort follow-up of 193 months) incident cases of cataract surgery in UK Biobank and EPIC-Norfolk, respectively. Compared with nondrinkers, drinkers were less likely to undergo cataract surgery in UK Biobank (hazard ratio [HR], 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-0.93) and EPIC-Norfolk (HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.84-0.97) after adjusting for covariables. Among alcohol consumers, greater alcohol consumption was associated with a reduced risk of undergoing cataract surgery in EPIC-Norfolk (P < 0.001), whereas a U-shaped association was observed in the UK Biobank. Compared with nondrinkers, subgroup analysis by type of alcohol beverage showed the strongest protective association with wine consumption; the risk of incident cataract surgery was 23% and 14% lower among those in the highest category of wine consumption in EPIC-Norfolk and UK Biobank, respectively.ConclusionsOur findings suggest a lower risk of undergoing cataract surgery with low to moderate alcohol consumption. The association was particularly apparent with wine consumption. We cannot exclude the possibility of residual confounding, and further studies are required to determine whether this association is causal in nature.

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The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network.

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The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network.

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