The Association between Social Network Betweenness and Coronary Calcium: A Baseline Study of Patients with a High Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

AIM: The association of social networks with cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been demonstrated through various studies. This study aimed to examine the association between social network betweenness -a network position of mediating between diverse social groups-and coronary artery calcium. METHODS: The data of 1,384 participants from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Etiology Research Center-High Risk Cohort, a prospective cohort study enrolling patients with a high risk of developing CVD (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02003781), were analyzed. The deficiency in social network betweenness was measured in two ways: only-family networks, in which a respondent had networks with only family members, and no-cutpoint networks, in which the respondent does not function as a point of bridging between two or more social groups that are not directly connected. RESULTS: Participants who had higher coronary artery calcium scores (CACSs) were likely to have a smaller network size (p0.001), only-family networks (p0.001), and no-cutpoint networks (p0.001). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed no significant association between network size and CACS. Only no-cutpoint networks had a significant relationship with CACS 400 (odds ratio, 1.72; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-2.77; p=0.026). The association was stronger among older (age 60 years) and female respondents. CONCLUSION: Deficiency in social network betweenness is closely related to coronary calcium in participants with a high risk of CVD. To generalize these results to a general population, further study should be performed.