Abstract P328: Association of Functional and Structural Social Network Components With Medication Adherence Among Participants With Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors: the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study

Prior research suggests that functional (e.g., practical support) social network components are more strongly associated with chronic disease health outcomes than structural (e.g., social network size, frequency of social contacts) components. Yet, it is unclear whether strong social networks help improve health outcomes by promoting medication adherence, particularly among those with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. We included 17,133 black and white adults aged ≥45 years from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study who had diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, or prevalent CHD and used medications for these conditions. Functional (i.e., someone to care for you while sick or disabled vs no-one available) and structural (i.e., presence vs absence of adults in household, married/in a marriage-like relationship vs not partnered, number of close friends and relatives, and number of close friends and relatives seen at least monthly) social network components were ...