Collective ritual and social support networks in rural South India.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Power EA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5998092 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Collective ritual and social support networks in rural South India.
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20180523 1879
The scholarship on religion has long argued that collective worship helps foster social cohesion. Despite the pervasiveness of this contention, rigorous quantitative evaluations of it have been surprisingly limited. Here, I draw on network data representing the ties of social support among Hindu residents of a South Indian village to evaluate the association between collective religious ritual and social cohesion. I find that those who partake in collective religious rituals together have a high ...[more]
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Project description:<p><font color="#FF0000"><b>Note: Data Use Restrictions:</b> <ul> <li>The data <i><u>must only</u></i> be used for genetic research projects solely in the area of health-related social-network research.</li> </ul> </font> </p> <p>This study compiles detailed information on family and social ties linked to participants in the offspring cohort of the Framingham Heart Study. The investigators took computerized information from self-report data used by the FHS for over 30 years to facilitate health exam scheduling. These tracking sheets asked participants to identify people close to them, which were assumed by the investigators to indicate a social tie. Individuals are listed as "egos" (if the ties are from their perspective) and/or "alters" (if they are linked as a friend or family members to one of the other participants). All egos were FHS offspring participants while alters could be FHS participants in any cohort or non-participants. This information was combined with internal FHS pedigree data on family ties to list family member alters (as well as the nature of their relationship). The resultant dataset therefore includes each ego-alter tie, the nature of their relationship and the start and end dates for their ties for each of seven waves for the offspring study.</p> <p>Due to privacy concerns, all exam dates for individuals are listed relative to the initial FHS exam date. The study investigators chose a random, confidential date, to which all initial exam dates are linked (by number of months from random date to initial exam date). With this information, researchers can have access to the temporal relationships among participants' exam dates while remaining unaware of the actual exam dates for individual participants.</p> <p>During each clinic exam cycle, the participants undergo a detailed examination including physical examination, medical history, laboratory testing, and electrocardiogram. Over the years, other tests (that may not be performed at every exam cycle) have included pulmonary function, lifestyle, physical function, cognitive function questionnaires, and various noninvasive cardiovascular tests including echocardiograms. This study involves phenotypic data from these exams including (when available) basic body measurements (height, weight, blood pressure), laboratory values (blood sugar levels, LDL levels), information on smoking and alcohol use, and tests of depression and cognitive functioning.</p> <p><b>Important links to apply for individual-level data</b> <ol> <li><a href="http://dbgap.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/aa/wga.cgi?view_pdf&stacc=phs000153.v3.p3" target="_blank">Data Use Certification Requirements (DUC)</a></li> <li><a href="GetPdf.cgi?id=phd001183.1" target="_blank">Instructions to Request Authorized Access</a></li> <li><a href="http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbgap-controlled" target="_blank">Apply here for controlled access to individual level data</a></li> <li><a href="GetPdf.cgi?id=phd000317" target="_blank">Participant Protection Policy FAQ</a></li> </ol> </p> <p>In 1948, researchers recruited men and women from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, beginning the first round of extensive physical examinations and lifestyle interviews that would later be analyzed for common patterns related to CVD development.</p> <p>Initially, the Framingham Heart Study enrolled 5,209 men and women from the Framingham area who were between the ages of 28 and 62 years. Beginning in 1971, the Framingham Heart Study enrolled 5,124 men and women, who were either offspring of the original cohort or spouses of those offspring. In 2002, 4,095 third generation participants (men and women) were enrolled.</p>
| phs000153.v5.p5 | EGA
Project description:BackgroundSeveral theories seek to explain how social connections and cognitive function are interconnected in older age. These include that social interaction protects against cognitive decline, that cognitive decline leads to shedding of social connections and that cognitive decline leads to increased instrumental support. We investigated how patterns of social contact, social support and cognitive health in rural South Africa fit with these three theories.MethodWe used data from the baseline of "Health and Aging in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH community in South Africa" (HAALSI), a population-based study of 5059 individuals aged ≥ 40 years. We evaluated how a range of egocentric social connectedness measures varied by respondents' cognitive function.ResultsWe found that respondents with lower cognitive function had smaller, denser social networks that were more local and more kin-based than their peers. Lower cognitive function was associated with receipt of less social support generally, but this difference was stronger for emotional and informational support than for financial and physical support. Impairment was associated with greater differences among those aged 40-59 and those with any (versus no) educational attainment.ConclusionsThe patterns we found suggest that cognitively impaired older adults in this setting rely on their core social networks for support, and that theories relating to social connectedness and cognitive function developed in higher-income and higher-education settings may also apply in lower-resource settings elsewhere.
| S-EPMC7441312 | biostudies-literature