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Table 2 General and social network characteristics of the study population

From: Socially isolated individuals are more prone to have newly diagnosed and prevalent type 2 diabetes mellitus - the Maastricht study –

  NGM (n = 1623) Pre-diabetes (n = 430) Newly diagnosed T2DM (n = 111) Previously diagnosed T2DM (n = 697) P-value1
General measurements
Age 58.1 ± 8.1 61.6 ± 7.5 62.9 ± 7.5 62.7 ± 7.7 <0.001
Male sex (%) 42.2 53.3 63.1 69.4 <0.001
Body mass index (kg/m2) 25.5 ± 3.6 27.7 ± 4.3 28.8 ± 4.8 29.9 ± 5.0  
Educational level (%)
 - low2 26.1 34.7 34.2 47.1 <0.001
 - intermediate3 27.5 28.1 30.6 27.7  
 - high4 45.7 36.3 34.2 24.5  
Employment status (%)
 - employed 46.8 35.3 28.8 27.8 <0.001
 - retired 26.6 36.0 45.0 37.0  
 - no paid job 19.6 19.8 19.8 20.1  
 - not known 7.1 8.8 6.3 15.1  
Smoking status (%)
 - never 39.6 29.8 33.3 27.7 <0.001
 - former 48.4 57.0 57.7 55.8  
 - current 11.9 13.3 8.1 16.1  
Alcohol consumption, glasses per week 7.3 ± 7.1 9.1 ± 10.6 9.3 ± 10.6 6.1 ± 8.5 <0.001
Prior CVD (%) 11.6 12.1 20.7 27.5 <0.001
Hypertension (%) 41.2 63.6 75.7 83.9 <0.001
Diabetes medication use (%) n/a n/a n/a 90.9 n/a
Diabetes duration (years; median, Q1-Q3; n = 567) n/a n/a n/a 7.0 (3.0–12.0) n/a
Structural characteristics of the social network
Network size 11.00 ± 5.15 10.02 ± 5.08 7.68 ± 4.59 7.61 ± 4.38 <0.001
Contact frequency
Total contacts per half year 249.33 ± 144.09 233.13 ± 145.26 193.14 ± 123.39 196.55 ± 125.58 <0.001
Percentage of daily-weekly contact 46.29 ± 24.41 47.15 ± 25.09 53.67 ± 28.04 54.16 ± 28.01 <0.001
Proximity
Percentage of network members living within walking distance 28.96 ± 21.28 30.79 ± 23.60 27.51 ± 24.07 27.67 ± 24.20 0.158
Type of relationship
Percentage household members 14.00 ± 12.48 14.42 ± 13.84 21.19 ± 20.71 17.53 ± 17.41 <0.001
Percentage family members 55.94 ± 22.34 58.30 ± 23.68 61.78 ± 27.22 64.68 ± 26.00 <0.001
Percentage friends 30.05 ± 20.30 27.23 ± 20.95 22.76 ± 21.06 21.43 ± 21.96 <0.001
Living alone (%) 14.7 17.4 17.1 20.2 <0.05
Social participation (%) 71.6 64.2 61.1 56.4 <0.001
Functional characteristics of the social network
Informational supporta 3.5 ± 1.6 3.2 ± 1.7 2.7 ± 1.7 2.7 ± 1.7 <0.001
Emotional support (discomfort) a 3.0 ± 1.6 2.6 ± 1.6 2.1 ± 1.5 2.2 ± 1.5 <0.001
Emotional support (important decisions) a 3.4 ± 1.5 2.9 ± 1.6 2.5 ± 1.7 2.4 ± 1.5 <0.001
Practical support (jobs)a 3.0 ± 1.5 2.7 ± 1.5 2.3 ± 1.4 2.4 ± 1.4 <0.001
Practical support (sickness) a 2.5 ± 1.4 2.2 ± 1.4 1.8 ± 1.3 1.9 ± 1.3 <0.001
  1. Total study population n = 2861, NGM Normal glucose metabolism, T2DM Type 2 diabetes mellitus (newly or previously diagnosed)
  2. 1 p–values were obtained from ANOVA (p for trend)/ Kruskal-Wallis/ Chi-Square tests
  3. 2low education (no education, primary education, and lower vocational education). 3 intermediate education (intermediate vocational education, higher secondary education, and vocational education). 4 high education (higher professional education, university)
  4. aSocial support variables have a range from 0 to 5. Values are means (SD), unless stated otherwise
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