From the Department of Psychology (Flores, O'Neill, Boyd, Ruiz), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; and Department of Psychology (Uchino), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Psychosom Med. 2023;85(2):165-174. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001157. Epub 2022 Dec 14.
Hispanic/Latino(x) and African American/Black older adults experience disproportionate cardiometabolic disease burdens when compared with their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Sources of resilience such as social networks have been found to mitigate the risk of this disease and its end points like high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). However, little is known about the social network infrastructure among these groups. Moreover, existing work has largely ignored the degree to which members of one's network are connected to one another (network density), which may be important for navigating structural barriers within interdependent groups. The objective of this study was to understand the association between network density and 5-year hs-CRP (blood spot) and whether this association was moderated by race-ethnicity.
A subsample of Hispanic/Latino(x), African American/Black, and non-Hispanic White older adults ( N = 1431) from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project was used. Multivariable regression was used to estimate the association between network density and its interaction with race-ethnicity, with hs-CRP 5 years later.
Although no main effect of network density on 5-year hs-CRP was found, results revealed a significant network density by race-ethnicity interaction (Wald χ2 (2, 1242) = 3.31, p = .037). Simple slopes analyses revealed that Hispanic/Latino(x) older adults with high network density had significantly lower hs-CRP levels when compared with their same-ethnic counterparts with low network density ( b = -0.73, standard error = 0.31, 95% confidence interval = -1.33 to -0.13, p = .018).
Results demonstrate population-level differences in social network structure and differential associations of this infrastructure with health. Implications for the Hispanic Mortality Paradox are discussed.
与非西班牙裔白人相比，西班牙裔/拉丁裔（x）和非裔美国人/黑人群体经历不成比例的心血管代谢疾病负担。已经发现社会网络等弹性资源可以降低这种疾病及其终点（如高敏 C 反应蛋白（hs-CRP））的风险。然而，人们对这些群体的社交网络结构知之甚少。此外，现有研究在很大程度上忽略了一个人网络中成员彼此之间的连接程度（网络密度），这对于在相互依存的群体中克服结构障碍可能很重要。本研究的目的是了解网络密度与 5 年 hs-CRP（血斑）之间的关联，以及这种关联是否受种族/民族的调节。
利用国家社会生活、健康和老龄化项目的西班牙裔/拉丁裔（x）、非裔美国/黑人以及非西班牙裔白人老年人亚组（N=1431）。采用多变量回归来估计网络密度与其与种族/民族的交互作用与 5 年后 hs-CRP 之间的关系。
尽管未发现网络密度对 5 年 hs-CRP 有主要影响，但结果显示网络密度与种族/民族之间存在显著的交互作用（Wald χ2（2,1242）=3.31，p=.037）。简单斜率分析显示，与低网络密度的同种族同龄人相比，高网络密度的西班牙裔/拉丁裔（x）老年人的 hs-CRP 水平显著降低（b=-0.73，标准误差=0.31，95%置信区间=-1.33 至-0.13，p=.018）。
结果表明社交网络结构存在人群差异，并且这种结构与健康的关联存在差异。讨论了西班牙裔死亡率悖论的意义。
