Teens with upbeat friends may have better emotional health

This study is a nice example of a recent trend in epidemiology — using data about an individual’s social network to learn things about that person. This type of research has led to numerous interesting findings, and has really shaped an entire new area of inquiry. A study published in 2007 in The New England Journal of Medicine was one of the first of this kind. It showed that people who had obese friends and family were themselves more likely to be obese. Since then, additional research has looked at how social networks influence an individual’s risk of developing (or sidestepping) specific health conditions, such as obesity, smoking, and depression. Results of these studies have been, at times, surprising, thus giving the medical community valuable new information. For example, I myself led a study in 2011 called “The influence of social networks on patients’ attitudes toward type II diabetes.” When I started this research, I supposed that patients would be less concerned about having diabetes if more of their friends and family members had diabetes. I had guessed that these patients might have become so used to the idea of diabetes that the disease would seem common and almost normal. But in fact, my team found the opposite! Patients with a higher prevalence of diabetes within their social networks expressed greater concern about their illness. This unexpected result gave me information that helped me to better take care of my patients. Using social network dat...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Anxiety and Depression Behavioral Health Children's Health Parenting teen health teenagers Source Type: news