Educational attainment in sociocentric networks associates with cardiac biomarkers in Korean elders

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. Cardiac biomarkers such as BNP, Troponin I, and NT-proBNP are early indicators of cardiovascular stress and subclinical damage. For instance, Troponin I is linked to myocardial infarction, while BNP and NT-proBNP are used to identify heart failure. This study examines the relationship between educational attainment of social network and cardiac biomarkers using data from the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP), a longitudinal study of 709 adults aged 60–95 in a rural village, surveyed in 2011, 2016, and 2019. 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, showed no association with levels of cardiac biomarkers. However, having one college-educated friend-of-friend was linked to lower levels of BNP (β = –0.26), Troponin I (β = –0.81), and NT-proBNP (β = –0.57). The associations were stronger for those with two or more such ties (e.g., NT-proBNP: β = –1.41). Social environments enriched with college-educated ties may offer cognitive or informational benefits that help prevent early cardiovascular damage.