Table 3

Direct and indirect effects of social network properties on metabolic syndrome (n=10 103)*

Community-based low-risk participants (n=8097)
Social network properties	Men (n=2808)		Women (n=5289)
Social network properties	Effect size (95% CI)† (×10⁻²)	P value	Effect size (95% CI)† (×10⁻²)	P value
Size of social network
Direct effect	3.65 (1.74 to 7.07)	0.040	3.19 (1.15 to 5.20)	0.002
Indirect effect—physical activity	0.52 (0.08 to 1.05)	0.024	0.31 (0.11 to 0.55)	<0.001
Indirect effect—cigarette smoking	0.00 (−0.11 to 0.11)	0.977	0.00 (−0.06 to 0.48)	0.910
Indirect effect—alcohol consumption	−0.01 (−0.16 to 0.14)	0.933	−0.03 (−0.12 to 0.03)	0.420
Indirect effect—depressive symptoms	0.14 (−0.15 to 0.47)	0.345	0.00 (−0.15 to 0.14)	0.994
Social network closeness
Direct effect	1.45 (−1.99 to 4.84)	0.396	−1.40 (−3.43 to 0.56)	0.176
Indirect effect—physical activity	0.07 (−0.08 to 0.29)	0.362	0.05 (−0.05 to 0.17)	0.314
Indirect effect—cigarette smoking	0.06 (−0.10 to 0.29)	0.445	0.02 (−0.04 to 0.09)	0.554
Indirect effect—alcohol consumption	−0.03 (−0.20 to 0.11)	0.697	−0.03 (−0.12 to 0.03)	0.358
Indirect effect—depressive symptoms	0.16 (−0.16 to 0.50)	0.340	0.00 (−0.23 to 0.23)	0.991

Hospital-based high-risk participants (n=2006)
Social network properties	Men (n=1168)		Women (n=838)
Social network properties	Effect size (95% CI)† (×10⁻²)	P value	Effect size (95% CI)† (×10⁻²)	P value
Size of social network
Direct effect	−1.12 (−9.07 to 6.51)	0.802	8.40 (0.09 to 16.23)	0.046
Indirect effect—physical activity	0.13 (−0.47 to 0.80)	0.649	0.07 (−0.61 to 0.82)	0.824
Indirect effect—cigarette smoking	−0.01 (−1.02 to 0.92)	0.991	0.12 (−0.41 to 0.83)	0.662
Indirect effect—alcohol consumption	−0.05 (−0.64 to 0.51)	0.857	−0.04 (−0.50 to 0.37)	0.870
Indirect effect—depressive symptoms	0.12 (−0.30 to 0.67)	0.601	0.03 (−0.36 to 5.07)	0.894
Social network closeness
Direct effect	−1.44 (−7.34 to 4.19)	0.630	1.33 (−5.69 to 8.18)	0.705
Indirect effect—physical activity	0.04 (−0.18 to 0.33)	0.790	0.04 (−0.33 to 0.47)	0.854
Indirect effect—cigarette smoking	0.42 (−0.29 to 1.33)	0.267	0.20 (−0.51 to 1.14)	0.598
Indirect effect—alcohol consumption	−0.03 (−0.47 to 0.36)	0.859	−0.07 (−0.67 to 4.34)	0.761
Indirect effect—depressive symptoms	0.66 (−0.09 to 1.58)	0.083	0.60 (−0.70 to 1.97)	0.344

Estimated using the ‘mediation’ package. The quasi-Bayesian Monte Carlo method was applied with 5000 times of simulation each.
Significant values are in bold.
*All results are from the dataset after multiple imputation by chained equations, with a chain length of 10.
†Adjusted for age, household income, education level, comorbidities and social network closeness.