Identification of direct and indirect social network effects in the pathophysiology of insulin resistance in obese human subjects

The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent different social network mechanisms are involved in the pathogenesis of obesity and insulin-resistance. We used nonparametric and parametric regression models to analyse whether individual BMI and HOMA-IR are determined by social network characteristics. A total of 677 probands (EGO) and 3033 social network partners (ALTER) were included in the study. Data gathered from the probands include anthropometric measures, HOMA-IR index, health attitudes, behavioural and socio-economic variables and social network data. We found significant treatment effects for ALTERs frequent dieting (p