Is Obesity Contageous?

Posted July 26, 2007 at 05:00 PM by Megan Hueter

Section: In The News, His Health, Physical Health, Lifestyle Health

If, over the years, your friends and family have “let themselves go” (gotten fat or gained weight), chances are you will, too. At least that’s what researchers report in a new study that suggests obesity is “socially contageous.’

The New England Journal of Medicine study found that a person’s chances of becoming obese went up 57% if a friend was obese, 40% if a sibling was and 37% if a spouse was obese. In the closest relationships, the risk almost tripled. 

Researchers think it’s more than just people with similar eating and exercise habits hanging out together. Instead, it may be that having relatives and friends who become obese changes one’s ideas of what an acceptable weight is.

Researchers analyzed medical records of 12,067 people in the Framingham Heart Study, which has been following the health of residents of that Boston suburb for more than 50 years. After taking into account natural weight gain and other factors, researchers found the greatest influence to be among friends and not in people sharing the same genes or living in the same household. On average, they calculated, when an obese person gained 17lbs, the corresponding friend put on 5lbs.

Have you looked at your closest friends and family lately?

For resources and more information: [Washington Post Express], [picture]