Natalie R Smith1,2, Paul N Zivich2,3, Leah Frerichs4. 1. Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. 2. Carolina Population Center, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. 3. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. 4. Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. leahf@email.unc.edu.
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Individuals tend to be socially connected with those of similar weight and obesity status. To inform future research and intervention development, we reviewed recent literature examining social influences on weight with a focus on mechanisms of social influence, populations studied, and emerging analytical methods. RECENT FINDINGS: Social networks appear to influence weight gain and weight loss. It remains unclear what underlying mechanisms (e.g., social norms, social comparison, behavioral modeling) drive this relationship. Stochastic actor-oriented modeling is an important method in the field, but other work has leveraged natural experiment or randomized designs to study social influence. Future networks and obesity research should examine social influence mechanisms, focus on diverse populations across the life course, and carefully consider how to adequately control for competing factors of social selection and physical environments.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Individuals tend to be socially connected with those of similar weight and obesity status. To inform future research and intervention development, we reviewed recent literature examining social influences on weight with a focus on mechanisms of social influence, populations studied, and emerging analytical methods. RECENT FINDINGS: Social networks appear to influence weight gain and weight loss. It remains unclear what underlying mechanisms (e.g., social norms, social comparison, behavioral modeling) drive this relationship. Stochastic actor-oriented modeling is an important method in the field, but other work has leveraged natural experiment or randomized designs to study social influence. Future networks and obesity research should examine social influence mechanisms, focus on diverse populations across the life course, and carefully consider how to adequately control for competing factors of social selection and physical environments.
Entities:
Keywords:
Obesity; Social environment; Social influence; Social networks
Authors: Kimberly A Gudzune; Jennifer Peyton; Craig Evan Pollack; J Hunter Young; David M Levine; Carl A Latkin; Jeanne M Clark Journal: Health Educ Behav Date: 2018-02-19
Authors: Paul N Zivich; Michael G Hudgens; Maurice A Brookhart; James Moody; David J Weber; Allison E Aiello Journal: Stat Med Date: 2022-07-18 Impact factor: 2.497