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Friendship as a social mechanism influencing body mass index (BMI) among emerging adults.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Social relationships have been proposed as a significant factor shaping obesity risk. The first year of college, a period of major social, behavioral, and weight changes, provides a context well-suited to tracking longitudinally the impact of shifting friendships on weight outcomes. This study sought to identify social mechanisms impacting BMI change among emerging adults. METHODS:An analytic sample of 276 college students (71.0% female, 52.2% non-White) provided repeated reports of relationships and BMI was measured up to four times during 2015-2016. Stochastic actor-oriented models were used to examine change in BMI through social influence and change in friendships over time, controlling for sex and race/ethnicity. RESULTS:At baseline, mean BMI was 24.2±4.5 kg/m2. Overall, mean BMI increased over time; individual decreases in BMI were uncommon. There was a selection effect of BMI: participants with BMIs between 22 and 26 kg/m2 were most likely to be nominated as a friend. While participants did not select friends based on BMI similarity, participants who were reported as friends were more likely to experience convergence in BMI over time relative to the BMIs of non-friends (p = 0.015). An increase in BMI (versus stability or a decrease) was more likely for those whose friends had a higher BMI on average compared to participants whose friends had the same or lower BMI (OR = 2.85, 95% CI = 1.22, 6.71). CONCLUSION:Analyses indicated BMI affected friend selection, not through students selecting friends with similar BMI, but rather, by students avoiding friends with more extreme BMI levels.

SUBMITTER: Bruening M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6298660 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Friendship as a social mechanism influencing body mass index (BMI) among emerging adults.

Bruening Meg M van Woerden Irene I Schaefer David R DR Hruschka Daniel D Brewis Alexandra A Whisner Corrie M CM Dunton Genevieve F GF Todd Michael M Ohri-Vachaspati Punam P Laska Melissa N MN

PloS one 20181218 12

<h4>Background</h4>Social relationships have been proposed as a significant factor shaping obesity risk. The first year of college, a period of major social, behavioral, and weight changes, provides a context well-suited to tracking longitudinally the impact of shifting friendships on weight outcomes. This study sought to identify social mechanisms impacting BMI change among emerging adults.<h4>Methods</h4>An analytic sample of 276 college students (71.0% female, 52.2% non-White) provided repeat ...[more]

PMID: 30562375

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Project description:BackgroundOverweight/obesity is a well-defined risk factor for a variety of chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Sleep duration has been associated with overweight/obesity and other cardio metabolic and neurocognitive problems. Notably, overweight/obesity and many of the associated comorbidities are prevalent in Indigenous Australians. Generally, sleep duration has been associated with BMI for Australian adults but information about Australian Indigenous adults' sleep is scant. A recent report established that sleep is a weak predictor of obesity for Indigenous Australian adults.AimTo determine whether sleep remains a predictor of obesity when physical activity, diet and smoking status are accounted for; and to determine whether sleep duration plays a mediating role in the relationship between Indigenous status and BMI.MethodsStatistical analyses of 5,886 Australian adults: 5236 non-Indigenous and 650 Indigenous people aged over 18 years who participated in the Australian Health Survey 2011-2013. Demographic and lifestyle characteristics were described by χ2 and t-tests. ANOVA was used to determine the variables that significantly predicted BMI and sleep duration. Stepwise regression analyses were performed to determine the strongest significant predictors of BMI. Sleep duration was self-reported; BMI was calculated from measurement.ResultsThe study revealed two main findings: (i) short sleep duration was an independent predictor of obesity (adjusted-R2 = 0.056, p <0.0001); and (ii) controlling for sleep duration and other possible confounders, Indigenous status was a significant predictor of BMI overweight/obesity. Sleep duration played a weak, partial mediator role in this relationship. Increased BMI was associated with lower socioeconomic status and level of disadvantage of household locality for non-remote Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.ConclusionIndigenous status strongly predicted increased BMI. The effect was not mediated by the socioeconomic indicators but was partially mediated by sleep duration.

Project description:Microorganisms are key decomposers of vertebrate mortalities, breaking down body tissues and impacting decomposition progress. During human decomposition, both extrinsic environmental factors and intrinsic cadaver-related factors have the potential to impact microbial decomposers either directly or indirectly via altered physical or chemical conditions. While extrinsic factors (e.g., temperature, humidity) explain some variation in microbial response during human decomposition in terrestrial settings, recent work has noted that even under the same environmental conditions, individuals can have different decomposition patterns, highlighting the potential for intrinsic factors to impact microbial decomposers. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of several intrinsic factors (age, sex, diseases at time of death, and body mass index [BMI]) on chemical and microbial changes in decomposition-impacted soils. In a field study conducted at the University of Tennessee Anthropology Research Facility, soils were collected from the decomposition-impacted area surrounding 19 deceased human individuals through the end of active decomposition. Soil physicochemical parameters were measured, and microbial (bacterial and fungal) communities were assessed via amplicon sequencing. BMI was shown to explain some variation in soil pH and microbial response to human decomposition. Hierarchical linear mixed (HLM) effects models revealed that BMI category significantly explained variation in pH response within decomposition-impacted soils over time (HLM F = 9.647; P < 0.001). Additionally, the relative abundance of soil Saccharomycetes in decomposition soils under underweight donors displayed little to no changes (mean maximum change in relative abundance, +6.6%), while all other BMI categories displayed an increased relative abundance of these organisms over time (normal, +50.6%; overweight, +64.4%; and obese, +64.6%) (HLM F = 3.441; P = 0.11). Together, these results reveal intrinsic factors influencing decomposition patterns, especially within the soil environment, and suggest BMI is an important factor for controlling decomposition processes. IMPORTANCE This work begins to address questions about interindividual variation in vertebrate decomposition attributed to intrinsic factors, that is, properties of the carcass or cadaver itself. Most research on factors affecting decomposition has focused on the extrinsic environment, such as temperature or humidity. While these extrinsic factors do explain some variation in decomposition patterns, interindividual variability is still observed. Understanding how intrinsic factors influence microbial decomposers will help reveal the ecological impacts of decomposition. This work also has forensic applications, as soil chemical and biological changes have been suggested as indicators of postmortem interval. We reveal factors that explain variation in the decomposition environment that should be considered in these estimates. This is particularly important as we consider the implications of variations in human populations due to diet, age, BMI, disease, toxicological loading, etc. on forensic investigations dealing with decomposing remains.

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Friendship as a social mechanism influencing body mass index (BMI) among emerging adults.

Publications

Friendship as a social mechanism influencing body mass index (BMI) among emerging adults.

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