Connections between neighbors of varying incomes tied to lower premature CV death
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NEW ORLEANS — Increased neighborhood connectedness of people of lower and higher socioeconomic status via Facebook friendships was associated with lower county-level prevalence of CV death, a speaker reported.
The findings of a nationwide study of effects of social media-derived economic connectedness on premature CV death were presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.
“Social networks are important for health outcomes,” Tabitha N. Lobo, MD, internal medicine resident at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, said in a press release. “Mechanisms to improve social networks could be established through youth mentorship programs, internships or school-based programs for connecting people, and these may have long-lasting effects on neighborhood characteristics with respect to cardiovascular mortality.”
For this study, Lobo and colleagues used data from the National Center for Health Statistics to assess whether economic connectedness, defined as connections between people of lower and higher socioeconomic status via Facebook friendships, was associated with lower premature CV death (aged < 65 years). Their analysis included 941,399 deaths across 2,305 counties in the U.S. between 2018 and 2020.
Social media-derived economic connectedness was determined using a recently developed method to estimate the proportion of users in a specific community with a large number of online connections with individuals with higher socioeconomic status.
Before adjustment, the researchers observed a negative association between social media-derived economic connectedness and county-level premature CV death (beta = 173.14; standard error, 4.56; P < .001), which accounted for approximately 38% of inter-county variability in premature CV death.
The negative association between social media-derived economic connectedness and county-level premature CV death remained significant after adjustment for traditional risk factors, including county-level prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol (beta = 41.82; standard error, 7.13; P < .001), and accounted for approximately 57.2% of inter-county variability in premature CV death.
“If we can predict a person’s risk, we can use that information to guide medical treatments,” Lobo said in the release. “Traditionally, we’ve focused on individual-based interventions, but this gives us the opportunity to work at more of a community level, for example, by giving policymakers information to improve the overall health of a community and not just focus at an individual level.”
Reference:
- Your Facebook friendships may influence your heart health. www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2023/02/22/20/23/Your-Facebook-Friendships-May-Influence-Your-Heart-Health. Published Feb. 23, 2023. Accessed Feb. 24, 2023.
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Lobo TN, et al. Abstract 1080-17. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 4-6, 2023; New Orleans (hybrid meeting).
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