PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christine Marie Mills
AU  - Heather H Keller
AU  - Vincent Gerard DePaul
AU  - Catherine Donnelly
TI  - Nutrition risk varies according to social network type: data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
AID  - 10.1136/fmch-2022-002112
DP  - 2023 Feb 01
TA  - Family Medicine and Community Health
PG  - e002112
VI  - 11
IP  - 1
4099  - http://fmch.bmj.com/content/11/1/e002112.short
4100  - http://fmch.bmj.com/content/11/1/e002112.full
SO  - Fam Med Com Health2023 Feb 01; 11
AB  - Objective There were two primary objectives, namely: (1) to determine the social network types that Canadian adults aged 45 and older belong to and (2) to discover if social network type is associated with nutrition risk scores and the prevalence of high nutrition risk.Design A retrospective cross-sectional study.Setting Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).Participants 17 051 Canadians aged 45 years and older with data from baseline and first follow-up of the CLSA.Results CLSA participants could be classified into one of seven different social network types that varied from restricted to diverse. We found a statistically significant association between social network type and nutrition risk scores and percentage of individuals at high nutrition risk at both time points. Individuals with restricted social networks had lower nutrition risk scores and are more likely to be at nutrition risk, whereas individuals with diverse social networks had higher nutrition risk scores and are less likely to be at nutrition risk.Conclusions Social network type was associated with nutrition risk in this representative sample of Canadian middle-aged and older adults. Providing adults with opportunities to deepen and diversify their social networks may decrease the prevalence of nutrition risk. Individuals with more restricted networks should be proactively screened for nutrition risk.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data are available from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (www.clsa-elcv.ca) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to deidentified CLSA data.