Assessing Social Contagion in Body Mass Index, Overweight, and Obesity Using a Natural Experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Little is known about whether the substantial clustering of obesity and overweight within social and geographic networks results from causal pathways, such as social contagion and shared environments, or from self-selection.

Objectives

This study aimed to determine whether exposure to communities with higher rates of obesity increases the body mass index (BMI) of individuals, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, and their risk of being overweight or obese, and whether social contagion, shared environments, or self-selection can account for identified differences.

Design, setting, and participants

This natural experiment study used the routine assignment of military service members to installations as a source of exogenous v

SUBMITTER: Datar A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5885842 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature