Facebook Friendships Could Reduce Risks of Cardiovascular-related Premature Deaths [STUDY]

A recent study has revealed how Facebook friendships and connectedness through other social media channels can play a role in one's health.

Facebook Friendships and Health

According to SciTechDaily, areas that have higher economic connectedness rates, which refer to links between individuals of higher and lower socioeconomic status and are indicated through Facebook friendships, have remarkably lower premature death rates linked to cardiovascular conditions. Such a study was presented at the Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology of the American College of Cardiology. Lead author Tabitha Lobo, MD, who is an internal medicine resident at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, will also be presenting the study on March 6.

Prior research has revealed that low socioeconomic status, or poverty, boosts one's risk of developing cardiovascular conditions or premature death. This recent study is the first to gauge health outcomes with Facebook friendships as the metric for gauging economic connectedness. Findings of the study show that having links with individuals who have higher socioeconomic status than the median rate, which is gauged through machine learning that is multifaceted and based on neighborhood-scope and individual Facebook data, may help reduce the health effects of poverty. It may also help in predicting health risks on an individual scale or inform community-level efforts to boost health.

Lobo states that social networks are vital when it comes to health outcomes. Boosting social networks could be done through internships, school programs, or youth mentorship programs. These could lead to lasting impacts on the neighborhood's characteristics in light of cardiovascular conditions.

The researchers projected neighborhood-level economic connectedness across the United States. They did so by using a recently developed method to gauge the proportion of Facebook users from a particular area with many Facebook friendships with those of higher socioeconomic status. The approach only monitored friendship status and did not look into engagements.

Neighborhoods that had individuals who were highly connected were considered to exhibit high economic connectedness. On the other hand, areas with fewer links to those with higher socioeconomic status were thought to exhibit low economic connectedness.

They compared the data on economic connectedness with premature death rates at the country level. They analyzed more than 900,000 death records of individuals aged 25 to 65 from 2018 to 2020 who had heart conditions as the reason behind their deaths.

Higher Economic Connectedness Decreases Risk of Premature Death

According to Healthnews, findings revealed that areas with higher economic connectedness had lower premature cardiovascular death rates. This pattern was observed on a regional and national scale.

In terms of risk factors that were country-level and other factors such as sex, social vulnerability scores, and race, economic connectedness gauged by Facebook friendships was projected to account for 57% of the inter-country variances in premature death rates pertaining to cardiovascular conditions.

Though there is a need to further assess the factors that play a role, the researchers say that this economic connectedness metric could help quantify one's chances for economic growth. Researchers also state the findings propose that economic connectedness taken from social media metrics may be useful in projecting the risk of heart conditions and coming up with interventions to boost health.

Lobo states that, if one's risk can be predicted, such information can be utilized to help with medical treatments.

One of the study's limitations is that the metric only covers those with Facebook accounts. Moreover, the metric is still new and has not undergone in-depth validation, unlike other metrics for gauging the potential of economic growth.

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