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The European Journal of Public Health 1998 8(4):286-293; doi:10.1093/eurpub/8.4.286
© 1998 by European Journal of Public Health
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CHRONIC DISEASES

Selection in the social network

Effects of chronic diseases

MARJA A.R. TIJHUIS1, HENK D. FLAP2, MARLEEN FOETS3 and PETER P. GROENEWEGEN3,4

1While conducting this research: NIVEL, Utrecht, the Netherlands, currently RNM CCM, Birthoven, The Netherlands
2ICS/Department of Sociology, University of Utrecht The Netherlands
3NIVEL, Utreht, The Netherlands
4 Department of Sociology, Department of Human Geography, University of Utrecht The Netherlands

Marja Tijhub, RNM, CCM, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bithoven, The Netherlands, tel. +31 30 2743498, fax +31 30 2744407

Background: This article deals with the consequences of disease for someone's personal social network. It is hypothesized that the duration of a socially severe disease will affect the social network in such a way that the proportions of women, kin, long-standing relationships and people living nearby are higher for people suffering from a disease longer. Contacts with colleagues will decline. Methods: These hypotheses were tested on the data of a representative sample of the Dutch, gathered by means of a health interview (N = 10, 110). The presence and duration of diseases were measured by a checklist of 23 chronic diseases. The social severity of a disease was determined by its visibility, threat to others and functional disablement. The network characteristics in this study were church membership, membership of voluntary organizations, number of dose friends, number of supportgivers, proportions of kin, women, colleagues, long-standing relationships and people living nearby. Gender, education, life-cyde stage and work status were taken Into account in all analyses. Results: Logistic and linear regression analyses showed that the duration of a disease, whatever the degree of social severity, does not affect the network strongly. People suffering longer from socially severe chronic diseases reported fewer friends and supportgivers. People suffering longer from moderately severe chronic diseases reported fewer supportgivers for health-related support. The results on socially mild chronic diseases were not in line with the expectations: people who are ill longer reported more friends and fewer women in their network. Conclusion: We conclude that in a general population the duration of diseases hardly has any effect on social network characteristics.

Keywords: chronic diseases, selection, social network


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