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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Richard S Strauss, UMDNJ, Clinical Academic Building - Suite 6140, 125 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1977 and Harold A. Pollack, PhD, Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory, SPH II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734-936-1298, strausrs@UMDNJ.EDU.
Context. Many researchers note the stigma associated with childhood and adolescent overweight. However, social isolation among overweight children has not been directly studied.
Objective. To investigate social networks of overweight and normal-weight children in a large, nationally representative sample of children.
Population. 90,118 adolescents aged 13-18 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, of which a 1:5 subsample was selected for detailed in home assessment, including heights and weights (n=20,762). Overweight was defined according to Body Mass Index exceeding 95th percentile for age and gender.
Main Outcome Measures: Each adolescent was asked to record the ID number of up to five male and five female friends from a list of all the children attending her school or sister-school. Friendship networks were calculated using SAS IML.
Results: Overweight adolescents were more likely to be socially isolated and remained on the periphery of the social networks compared to normal-weight adolescents. Overweight adolescents received significantly fewer friendship nominations than did normal-weight peers(3.39 vs 4.79), p < 0.001. Overweight adolescents were 70 percent more likely to receive NO friendship nominations than were their normal-weight peers and occupied less central locations in social networks. Decreased television viewing, increased sports participation, and increased participation in school clubs were associated with more friendship nominations and higher network centrality scores among both overweight and normal-weight children. Overweight African-American adolescents were less socially marginalized compared to overweight white & Hispanic adolescents (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Many overweight adolescents are socially marginalized. Such marginalization is an important clinical and public health concern.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Obesity, Adolescent Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.