Educational gradient in social network changes at disease diagnosis

Abstract

This study examines the educational gradient in social network changes following the diagnosis of new chronic diseases. Using a representative sample of the US older population, the author shows that the network size and amount of health-related discussion with social network members increased only for older adults with a bachelor's degree. Tie-level analyses reveal that such increase is from the activation of health discussion with the existing social network members, but not from the changes in discussion partners. These results suggest that heterogeneous temporal dynamics in social networks may be one mechanism that shapes diverging health trajectories in later life.

Keywords: Aging; Chronic diseases; Discussion networks; Health disparities; Network activation.