Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on January 18, 2009
Journal of Public Health 2009 31(1):175-183; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdn104
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Association of individual network social capital with abdominal adiposity, overweight and obesity
Spencer Moore, Assistant Professor1,2
Mark Daniel, Professor of Epidemiology2,3,4
Catherine Paquet, Research Fellow3
Laurette Dubé, Professor5
Lise Gauvin, Professor2,4,6
1 School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University, 69 Union Street, PEC 215, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
2 Centre de recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
3 School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
4 Département de médecine sociale et preventive, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
5 Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
6 Centre de recherche Léa-Roback sur les inégalités sociales de santé de Montréal, Universite de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Address correspondence to Dr Spencer Moore, E-mail: mooresp{at}queensu.ca
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Abstract |
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Background Limited research has examined the association of individual trust, participation and social capital with obesity using objective measures of waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and network measures of social capital.
Methods Data were obtained from a representative sample of Montreal residents. Participants completed questionnaires that included a position generator for collecting network social capital data. Measures of WC, height and weight were collected by registered nurses. To estimate associations with cardiometabolic risk, data on WC for individuals with BMI between 18.5 and 34.9 were extracted for analysis (n = 291). Using a proportional odds model with clustered robust standard errors, we evaluated the association of three different measures of individual social capital with elevated and substantially elevated WC and overweight and obesity categories of BMI. These measures were then evaluated in their associations with elevated WC and BMI, adjusting for socio-demographic and behavioral covariates.
Results Network social capital was inversely associated with the likelihood of being in an elevated WC risk category (odds ratio (OR) = 0.81, 95% confidence intervals (CI: 0.69, 0.96) and higher BMI category (OR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.71, 0.92).
Conclusion Higher individual network social capital is associated with a lower likelihood of elevated WC risk and overweight and obesity.
Keywords: obesity, social determinants, socioeconomics factors