Processed food intake assortativity in the personal networks of East European older adults

Coalescing evidence shows that food habits circulate through social relationships. However, seniors' social networks and unhealthy dietary choices remain underexplored, particularly within rural Eastern Europe's unique socioeconomic and cultural contexts. We investigate how social networks affect the consumption of processed foods high in salt among community-dwelling older adults (64 years of age and older) from a Romanian rural community. We use an observational cross-sectional quantitative approach (a personal network research design) to collect self-reported information about the study participants (egos; n = 83), their social contacts (alters), and the relationships among them (ego-alter and alter-alter ties). We fit multi-level, mixed-effects models, clustering alters by their egos, and show that older adults eating processed food high in salt are more likely to be connected to alters with similar eating habits (assortativity). This result is of particular relevance when considering the nutritional health of older adults, as it implies that interventions targeting this demographic should extend beyond the individual to encompass their social environment. Despite the cross-sectional approach limitations, our work may enrich the understanding of dietary patterns among rural Eastern European seniors and provide an empirical foundation for designing targeted interventions that can mitigate health risks associated with high-salt diets in older populations. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01, project ID 101104432, programme HORIZON; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG 321869138); the Slovenian Research Agency (Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost RS) (Grant Nos. P1-0403). The funding sources had no involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in writing the paper and in the decision to submit the article for publication. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee of the Center for Innovation in Medicine (InoMed) gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced are available online at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10534214