Building Social Networks to Improve Physical Activity and Weight Loss in Latino Parents

 描述(申请人提供)：社交网络是肥胖症流行的一个重要因素。网络干预--有意利用社会网络改变行为和改善健康的干预措施--在改变吸烟等行为方面取得了成功，但尚未开发出解决肥胖问题的方法。由于人们对相关行为的传播知之甚少，有关社交网络和肥胖的研究转化为网络干预措施的速度一直很慢。基于随机参与者的模型现在允许我们同时控制大量的网络效应，从而理清和量化网络如何塑造我们的行为，以及我们的行为如何塑造我们的网络。这代表着在方法严谨性方面的巨大进步。但科学界在将这些方法应用于理解与成人肥胖相关的行为(例如，体力活动)方面的能力受到限制，因为没有足够的数据集。因此，我们建议利用正在进行的基于家庭、基于社区的儿童肥胖预防干预措施(U01HL103620，“成长研究”)，与460名拉丁裔父母一起进行。通过将社交网络数据收集添加到Growth研究的最终数据收集点(T6，3年)，拟议的研究将创建一个独特的数据集，因为它绘制了三年(基线、1年、3年)特征良好的队列的社交网络。非常重要的是，网络测量将与客观测量的行为(例如，身体活动、体重变化)同时进行，在最大限度地减少丢失数据的有界网络中。我们的主要研究问题是，拉丁裔父母能否建立新的社会关系，以改善他们的身体活动和体重。使用最先进的建模技术，我们将量化体力活动的“社会传染”，检查传播(或限制)体力活动和减肥的网络类型，以及社交网络中能够通过网络启动(或阻碍)体力活动和减肥传播的位置。我们建议将数据收集扩展到Growth研究计划之外，并进行一系列雄心勃勃的分析，这些分析与Growth研究截然不同，尚未在文献中报道。我们的长期目标是促进科学界对新的社交网络如何促进或限制身体活动的理解，以便我们能够创建更有效的肥胖预防和治疗干预措施。这项建议是一项时间敏感的研究，可能会以相对较少的投资，在对一个严重而棘手的公共卫生问题进行转译研究方面取得重大进展。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social networks are an important factor in the prevalence of obesity. Network-mediated interventions - interventions that intentionally leverage social networks to change behavior and improve health - have been successful at changing behaviors such as smoking, but have not yet been developed to address obesity. The translation of research on social networks and obesity into network-mediated interventions has been slow because the spread of relevant behaviors is poorly understood. Stochastic actor-based models now allow us to simultaneously control for numerous network effects and thus, disentangle and quantify how networks shape our behavior, and how our behavior shapes our networks. This represents great strides in methodological rigor. But the scientific community is limited in its ability to apply these methods to understanding behaviors related to adult obesity (e.g., physical activity) because adequate datasets do not exist. Therefore, we propose to leverage an ongoing family-based, community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention (U01HL103620, "the GROW Study") with 460 Latino parents. By adding social network data collection to the GROW study's final data collection point (T6, 3 Years), the proposed study will create a dataset that is unique because it maps the social network of a well-characterized cohort over three years (Baseline, 1 Year, 3 Years). Very importantly, network measurements will be taken at the same time as objectively measured behaviors (e.g., physical activity, weight change), within a bounded network with minimal missing data. Our main research question is whether Latino parents can build new social ties to improve their physical activity and weight. Using the most advanced modelling techniques available, we will quantify "social contagion" of physical activity, examine the types of networks that spread (or constrain) physical activity and weight loss, as well as the positions in the social network that are able to start (or obstruct) th spread of physical activity and weight loss through the network. We propose to extend data collection beyond the plans of the GROW study, and to conduct an ambitious series of analyses that are distinct from the GROW study and not yet reported in the literature. Our long term goal is to advance the scientific community's understanding of how new social networks facilitate or constrain physical activity so that we can create more effective obesity prevention and treatment interventions. This proposal, a time-sensitive study, could result in significant gains in translational research on a serious - and intractable - public health problem for a relatively modest investment.