There is variety of causes of having a disease and hub cause leading to having multiple diseases. By eliminating the cause, the risk of having multiple diseases could be reduced. In this study, I developed the network structure, disease structural model, to analyze the cause and effect of history of diseases.

METHODS:

To develop the disease structural model, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2012 which assess the health and nutritional status of 5,389 people in the United States was used. The following fields in NHANES were chosen;

demographic data (age, male, human race, citizen of US), social status (educational level, marital status, annual house hold income, health insurance covered), lifestyle habit (smoking, had at least 12 alcohol drink per year, hours watch TV or videos past), laboratory data (glycohemoglobin, HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, body mass index), health status, history of disease (mild cognitive impairment, gout, heart disease, cerebral vascular disorder, heart attack, asthma, anemia, angina, chronic bronchitis, cancer). The model was analyzed by calculating dimension.

RESULTS:

Using NHANES public data, I developed the disease structural model. AIC was . The highest in degree, 5, was HDL and smoking. The highest out degree, 10, was high blood pressure (systolic blood pressure >= 140 mmHg). The high blood pressure had the highest degree, 13 and it was the central node. No cause and effect was found between annual income and history of disease.

CONCLUSIONS:

I developed the disease structural model and found that high blood pressure could be hub of history of disease such as cerebral vascular disease and heart disease and no cause and effect between annual income and history of disease.