Roybal Center for Translational Research on Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的皇家中心专注于认识到复杂的社会网络结构在个人健康中起着重要作用。我们工作的两个首要目标是：(1)提出关于社会网络在产生与健康和福祉相关的具体结果中的作用的重要问题，以及(2)开发回答这些问题的方法，这些问题涉及到与健康和福祉相关的行为信息可以测量的真实社会网络。我们的皇家中心将专注于当今美国老年人健康和福祉面临的一些最紧迫问题的社会网络基础，如肥胖和癌症，使用各种适用于不同年龄人群的新方法。本中心将强调使用互联网数据收集和网络属性的实验操作；此外，我们还希望继续利用我们现有的数据，包括我们独特的弗雷明汉心脏研究社交网络。我们将研究社会网络拓扑结构和动态功能的影响。我们将研究人际网络连接模式对健康和幸福的影响，我们将研究人际网络连接模式对健康和幸福的影响，我们将研究跨网络关系的现象流如何影响健康和幸福。我们的具体目标是：(1)建立一个研究中心，致力于开发新的方法来理解新领域的社会网络对健康的影响；(2)资助研究网络拓扑结构（尤其是在线社交网络）如何影响健康和福祉的试点项目；(3)资助研究健康行为和状态如何通过网络结构在“现实生活”社交网络（如弗雷明汉心脏研究社交网络）和在线网络中发生的试点项目。(4)帮助将试点项目的发现转化为帮助人们改善健康行为和福祉的具体建议；(5)帮助将试点项目和其他社会网络研究的发现转化为政府和其他利益相关者的政策建议；(6)广泛促进和协调与我们单独的社会网络重点项目有关的老年人健康和福祉问题的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our Roybal Center is focused on the recognition that complex social network structures play an important role in individual health. The two overarching goals of our work are (1) to ask significant questions about the role of social networks in producing specific outcomes related to health and well-being, and (2) to develop methods of answering such questions involving real social networks in which behavioral information relevant to health and well-being can be measured. Our Roybal Center will focus on the social network underpinnings of some of the most pressing problems facing the health and well-being of the elderly in the U.S. today, such as obesity and cancer, using a variety of novel methods applied to populations of diverse ages. Our Center will emphasize the use of internet data collection and the experimental manipulation of network properties; in addition, we also expect to continue to exploit our extant data, including our unique Framingham Heart Study Social Network. We will examine the impact of the topology and dynamic functioning of social networks. We will examine both inperson and online social networks for the effects of patterns of interpersonal network connections on health and well being, and we will study how health and well being are affected by the flow of phenomena across network ties. Our specific aims are to: (1) create a Center that contributes to the development of new methods for understanding social network effects on health in new areas, (2) fund pilot projects that examine how network topology, particularly in online social networks, affects health and well-being, (3) fund pilot projects that examine how the flow of health behaviors and states through network structures occurs in both "real life" social networks, such as the Framingham Heart Study Social Network, and in online networks, (4) help translate the findings of pilot projects into concrete recommendations for helping people improve health behaviors and well being, (5) help translate the findings of pilot projects and other social network research into policy recommendations for government and other stakeholders, (6) broadly promote and coordinate research with our separate social networks-focused Program Project on issues related to health and well being in the elderly. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Our work examines how people's embeddedness in social networks affects their health. Pilots will be chosen for their potential impact and policy relevance to health issues and quality of life in aging populations. Our work has implications for governmental entities concerned with public health, for clinical groups looking for ways to improve behavioral health and psychological well being, and for commercial entities focused on behavior change.