*연구과제명: Social network position and the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity in older Koreans
-연구 기관: 서울대학교 행복연구센터, 캘리포니아 대학교 로스앤젤레스 캠퍼스 의학과 및 정신의학·생체행동과학과, 서울대학교 심리학과, 연세대학교 사회학과 (연구팀)
-저자: Sung-Ha Lee, Steven W. Cole, Incheol Choi, Kiho Sung, Somin Kim , Yoosik Youm, Jeanyung Chey
Background: Social connections are crucial to human health and well-being. Previous research on molecular mechanisms in health has focused primarily on the individual-level perception of social connections (e.g., loneliness). This study adopted socio-centric social network analysis that includes all social ties from the entire population of interest to examine the group-level social connections and their association with a molecular genomic measure of health.
Methods: Using socio-centric (global) social network data from an entire village in Korea, we investigated how social network characteristics are related to immune cell gene expression among older adults. Blood samples were collected (N = 53, 65–79 years) and mixed effect linear model analyses were performed to examine the association between social network characteristics and Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) RNA expression patterns.
Results: Social network positions measured by k-core score, the degree of cohesive core positions in an entire village, were significantly associated with CTRA downregulation. Such associations emerged above and beyond the effects of perceived social isolation (loneliness) and biobehavioral risk factors (smoking, alcohol, BMI, etc.). Social network size, defined as degree centrality, was also associated with reduced CTRA gene expression, but its association mimicked that of perceived social isolation (loneliness).
Conclusions: The current findings implicate community-level social network characteristics in the regulation of individual human genome function above and beyond individual-level perceptions of connectedness.
*연구과제명: Social network position and the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity in older Koreans
-연구 기관: 서울대학교 행복연구센터, 캘리포니아 대학교 로스앤젤레스 캠퍼스 의학과 및 정신의학·생체행동과학과, 서울대학교 심리학과, 연세대학교 사회학과 (연구팀)
-저자: Sung-Ha Lee, Steven W. Cole, Incheol Choi, Kiho Sung, Somin Kim , Yoosik Youm, Jeanyung Chey
Background: Social connections are crucial to human health and well-being. Previous research on molecular mechanisms in health has focused primarily on the individual-level perception of social connections (e.g., loneliness). This study adopted socio-centric social network analysis that includes all social ties from the entire population of interest to examine the group-level social connections and their association with a molecular genomic measure of health.
Methods: Using socio-centric (global) social network data from an entire village in Korea, we investigated how social network characteristics are related to immune cell gene expression among older adults. Blood samples were collected (N = 53, 65–79 years) and mixed effect linear model analyses were performed to examine the association between social network characteristics and Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) RNA expression patterns.
Results: Social network positions measured by k-core score, the degree of cohesive core positions in an entire village, were significantly associated with CTRA downregulation. Such associations emerged above and beyond the effects of perceived social isolation (loneliness) and biobehavioral risk factors (smoking, alcohol, BMI, etc.). Social network size, defined as degree centrality, was also associated with reduced CTRA gene expression, but its association mimicked that of perceived social isolation (loneliness).
Conclusions: The current findings implicate community-level social network characteristics in the regulation of individual human genome function above and beyond individual-level perceptions of connectedness.