Tuesday, April 1, 2008

weekly blog post ---Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network











http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/370

The above link takes you to the New England Journal of Medicine Article that studied Obesity rates within a social network. Read below for the "legend" of the colors in the image. The title and authors are listed in bold.

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The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years
Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and James H. Fowler, Ph.D.


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Figure 1. Largest Connected Subcomponent of the Social Network in the Framingham Heart Study in the Year 2000.
Each circle (node) represents one person in the data set. There are 2200 persons in this subcomponent of the social network. Circles with red borders denote women, and circles with blue borders denote men. The size of each circle is proportional to the person's body-mass index. The interior color of the circles indicates the person's obesity status: yellow denotes an obese person (body-mass index, 30) and green denotes a nonobese person. The colors of the ties between the nodes indicate the relationship between them: purple denotes a friendship or marital tie and orange denotes a familial tie.

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