The association between educational attainment of a social network and cardiac biomarkers: analysis of sociocentric data from Korean older adults

The link between education and recovery from cardiovascular diseases is well-established, yet the relationship between the educational attainment of social network members and the development of these conditions remains underexplored. This study examines how the educational composition of social ties correlates with cardiac biomarkers. This study utilizes longitudinal observational data from the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP), tracking a prospective cohort of 709 older adults aged 60–95 years over eight years, with surveys conducted in 2011, 2016, and 2019. We analyzed a sociocentric network encompassing an entire village and measured three cardiac biomarkers: BNP, Troponin, and NT-proBNP. Fixed-effects models were employed to reduce unobserved heterogeneity by assessing within-individual changes. The educational attainment of rural older adults, who typically possess only basic education, shows no association with levels of cardiac biomarkers. In contrast, a higher number of college-educated individuals within one’s social network is negatively associated with all measured biomarkers (BNP: β = -0.23, 95% CI = -0.35 to -0.11; Troponin: β = -0.64, 95% CI = -1.01 to -0.26; NT-proBNP: β = -0.54, 95% CI = -0.92 to -0.15). The educational attainment of social networks, rather than one’s own, is consistently linked to cardiac biomarkers among less-educated older adults. Enriching social environments with college-educated ties may offer valuable information and stimulation for individuals with basic education, informing effective community-level strategies to prevent cardiac diseases.