Thompson Kristina, Zhu Yinjie, Moore Spencer
Health and Society, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Appetite. 2025 May 1;209:107951. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.107951. Epub 2025 Mar 14.
Wider adoption and maintenance of vegetarian diets would be mutually beneficial for human and environmental health. Social networks have been identified as a factor that would support this transition. While social networks' role in vegetarian diet adoption has been studied, their role in vegetarian diet maintenance over time has received much less attention. To address this gap, we investigated the extent to which having vegetarian close ties (family members and/or partners) was related to participants' likelihood of eating vegetarian. Data were derived from Lifelines, a large cohort study from the northern Netherlands (n = 60,639). Two assessments an average of 3.9 years apart were used. We studied the interaction of close ties' diet trajectories (either vegetarian or omnivore) at baseline and follow-up, and their relationship to participants' own diet trajectories at baseline and follow-up. Mixed multinomial logistic regression was used to account for clustering among families. Participants closely mirrored their close ties' diet trajectories. Having close ties who were vegetarians at baseline and follow-up was associated with the highest probability of the participants themselves also eating vegetarian at both assessments (Pr = 0.08, 95 % CI: 0.07-0.08). In contrast, participants with no vegetarian close ties at baseline and follow-up were the least likely to be vegetarians themselves at both assessments (Pr = 0.02, 95 % CI: 0.02-0.02). Partners particularly had a strong influence on participants' diet trajectories compared to other family members. It appears that the closer the tie was, the more closely diet trajectories paralleled each another. More broadly, leveraging social networks could be effective in encouraging more widespread adoption and maintenance of vegetarian diets.
更广泛地采用和维持素食饮食对人类健康和环境健康都将是互利的。社交网络已被确定为支持这一转变的一个因素。虽然社交网络在采用素食饮食方面的作用已得到研究，但它们在长期维持素食饮食方面的作用却很少受到关注。为了填补这一空白，我们调查了拥有素食的亲密关系（家庭成员和/或伴侣）与参与者食用素食的可能性之间的关联程度。数据来自荷兰北部的一项大型队列研究“生命线”（n = 60,639）。使用了平均间隔3.9年的两次评估。我们研究了基线和随访时亲密关系的饮食轨迹（素食或杂食）的相互作用，以及它们与参与者自身基线和随访时饮食轨迹的关系。使用混合多项逻辑回归来考虑家庭内部的聚类情况。参与者的饮食轨迹与其亲密关系的饮食轨迹密切相似。在基线和随访时拥有素食的亲密关系与参与者在两次评估中自己也食用素食的最高概率相关（Pr = 0.08，95% CI：0.07 - 0.08）。相比之下，在基线和随访时没有素食亲密关系的参与者在两次评估中自己成为素食者的可能性最小（Pr = 0.02，95% CI：0.02 - 0.02）。与其他家庭成员相比，伴侣对参与者的饮食轨迹影响尤其强烈。似乎关系越亲密，饮食轨迹彼此越相似。更广泛地说，利用社交网络可能有效地鼓励更广泛地采用和维持素食饮食。
