Social networks and oral health-related risk behaviors in public housing communities

社会影响是造成口腔健康差异的重要原因，也是改变健康相关因素的重要因素 弱势群体的行为。儿童口腔健康的概念模型包括动态社会 照顾者的知识、态度和行为的途径和关键作用。严重缺乏 关于这些途径的信息，特别是社会影响如何塑造知识、态度和行为 与口腔健康有关。 我们建议在公屋居民中进行纵向社会网络分析，以 更好地了解影响口腔健康相关危险行为的因素。尽管网络科学是 对于口腔健康差异研究来说，这是一个相对较新的工具，在其他健康研究领域是一个成熟的工具。 了解社会影响在口腔疾病发生和发展中的作用是至关重要的 制定、测试和实施有效的行为干预措施。 我们的理论基础是，通过使用网络科学来衡量社区中的社交互动，我们将 能够定义影响风险相关知识、态度和行为的社交网络路径 与口腔疾病有关。利用我们从研究中获得的关于社会影响力的知识， 未来的干预措施可能会得到测试和实施，以预防和减少口腔疾病 有患口腔疾病的风险。 我们的具体目标是： (1)招募和登记公屋居民社区，评估其结构性能 与口腔健康风险相关知识、态度和行为有关的社会网络在基线和9- 两个时间点上的月份间隔， (2)识别和量化与观测网络相关的外生和内生因素 结构和， (3)确定网络的组成和结构与口腔健康风险相关的关联 随着时间的推移，知识、态度和/或行为。 公房居民是高影响、高回报人群，研究口腔健康差异 因为它们涉及贫困和健康不良的空间集聚。这产生了一种独特的社会氛围和 与研究相关的耻辱，这在其他弱势社区中看不到。 我们的研究将研究影响与口语相关的社会行为的网络系统 疾病和健康差距。我们建议对公共房屋社区进行观察性研究的结果 将有助于为应对人口复杂系统动态的干预措施的设计提供信息 受健康差距的影响。

Social influences are important in the causes of oral health disparities and to changing health-related behaviors in disadvantaged populations. Conceptual models of children’s oral health include dynamic social pathways and the key role of caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. There is a critical lack of information about these pathways, particularly how social influences shape knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to oral health. We propose to conduct a longitudinal sociometric network analysis among residents of public housing to better understand the factors that affect oral health-related risk behaviors. Although network science is relatively new to oral health disparities research, it is a well-established tool in other areas of health research. Understanding the role of social influences on the initiation and progression of oral disease is critical to the development, testing and implementation of effective behavioral interventions. Our rationale is that by using network science to measure social interactions in a community, we will be able to define social network pathways that influence the risk-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that are associated with oral disease. Using knowledge about social influence that is gained from our research, future interventions may be tested and implemented that will prevent and reduce oral disease for those most at risk for oral disease. Our specific aims are to: (1) Recruit and enroll a community of public housing residents to evaluate the structural properties of their social networks relevant to oral health risk-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors at baseline and at 9- month intervals over two time points, (2) Identify and quantify the exogenous and endogenous factors associated with the observed network structures and, (3) Determine the association between the composition and structure of networks and oral health risk-related knowledge, attitudes and/or behaviors over time. Public housing residents are a high impact, high-reward population for the study of oral health disparities because they involve spatial clustering of poverty and poor health. This produces a unique social climate and associated stigma for study that is not seen in other disadvantaged communities. Our research will study network systems that influence social behaviors that are associated with oral disease and health disparities. Findings from our proposed observational study of public housing communities will help to inform the design of interventions that respond to the complex system dynamics of populations affected by health disparities.