Obesity spreads among friends

Like viruses, obesity can be spread from person to person in your group. If a friend of yours is obese, then your chances of getting caught also increase by more than 50%.

New research conducted in the US analyzed social networks of more than 12,000 people from 1971 to 2003. Researchers determine whose friends are, who are spouses, brothers, neighbors, and weight. of each person at different times within 3 decades.

The group found that people easily gained weight especially when one of their friends became obese. At that time, their chances of obesity increased to 57%. Nothing happens when neighbors increase or lose weight. Family members have less impact than friends.

(Photo: faqs.org) For friends, the distance does not seem to be a problem: the influence of a friend remains even when the person is miles away. Similar effects also occur with weight loss.

Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a physicist at Harvard Medical School, said an explanation for this phenomenon is that friends influence the concept of fat in each person. When a close friend becomes obese, this phenomenon is no longer ugly in the eyes of others.

This also explains why Americans are getting more and more fat in recent years - each fat person has followed a few other fat friends. On average, a person who becomes obese increases by 7.7 kg, their friend also attracts an additional 2.3 kg.

Dr. Richard Suzman of behavioral research at the National Institute of Aging said "this is one of the most interesting studies of medical sociology for decades".

MT