"Geographic distance between friends doesn't matter -- the influence of friendship is the same whether friends live next door or 500 miles away, according to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine. "

"The study, conducted by Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of UC San Diego, was the first to document the spread of obesity through a social network -- a pattern of contagion most often associated with infectious diseases, such as influenza and AIDS. "

"The report offers a nuanced understanding of the forces driving the steady rise in obesity during the last 25 years -- a trend that has been linked to cheap fast food, a sedentary lifestyle and genetic factors. "

"The study suggests many of those factors have a role but their influence is amplified through social connections. "

""This is a seminal study," said Richard Suzman, head of the National Institute on Aging department that funded the research. "It takes what was seen as a noninfectious disease and shows it clearly has got communicable factors." "

"The report is the latest to apply network analysis -- a concept with roots in computer science -- to human behavior. Other studies have demonstrated that smoking can ripple through groups of friends and depression can spread among family members. "

""It is very plain to those of us who work in community settings that health behaviors occur in the context of a social network," said Dr. Katherine Kaufer Christoffel, a childhood obesity expert at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "

"The latest report suggests that diet and exercise plans focused on obese individuals won't be as effective as interventions aimed at networks of
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