Estimating the Causal Effects of Social Networks on Health Behaviors

描述(由申请人提供)：评估社会网络对健康行为的因果影响现代社会中的个人以多种方式进行社会联系。个人使用他们的社交网络来接收和发送信息，以及建立、更新和执行社会行为规范。社交网络中的信息获取和社会规范的影响都可能对个人的健康行为产生重大影响，特别是青少年，他们对同龄人的压力特别敏感。这种同龄人影响力的增强也发生在发育阶段，在这个阶段，许多最昂贵的健康结果和行为都是开始的。青春期的这一系列事件为具有长期后果的个人决策的关键时期奠定了基础，也为卫生干预提供了一个独特的机会之窗。虽然最近的许多研究已经表明，与社会相关的个人的健康行为之间存在强大而重要的相关性，但对于许多健康行为，这种相关性是否具有因果关系仍在很大程度上不得而知。这项应用旨在评估潜在的因果关系，并阐明可能在未来干预中使用的潜在机制。我们建议进行新的经验技术的开发和演示，以评估社会网络在健康和不健康行为的发起、传播或停止中的重要性。该项目将利用国家青少年健康纵向研究(ADD Health)的社交网络数据，这是有史以来对青少年友谊网络进行的最大规模的研究，具有全国代表性。利用这些数据，我们将通过追求以下目标来填补目前研究知识库中的空白：(1)我们将开发和演示新的量化方法来估计青春期朋友对健康行为的影响的因果效应，包括烟酒使用、体重和其他结果；(2)我们将开发和演示新的定量技术来考察同伴对不健康行为开始时间和持续时间的影响；(3)我们将探讨友谊网络的政策相关结构要素(社会联系的距离、社会网络中“重要性”的衡量标准)，以研究如何将资源用于最大限度地提高干预措施的健康效益。我们把重点放在青春期，因为青春期在决定一系列不健康行为的启动方面的重要性，以及在这个发展阶段中同伴影响的重要性。然而，我们开发的方法足够通用，可以应用于其他社交网络。我们的调查结果将增加对社会网络在健康行为决定中的作用的理解，并增强我们提出有针对性的具体政策的能力，以实现干预的最大好处。 公共卫生相关性：这一应用程序包括一系列项目，以开发和演示新的经验技术，以评估青少年社交网络在发起、传播和停止健康和不健康行为方面的重要性，如吸烟和饮酒、体重结果和其他危险行为。利用我们的结果，可以提出新的干预措施，既可以降低青少年开始不健康行为的可能性，增加戒烟的可能性，也可以利用社交网络的特定功能，如关键参与者，在整个网络中增加行为干预的好处。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Estimating the Causal Effects of Social Networks on Health Behaviors Individuals in modern societies are socially connected in a multitude of ways. Individuals use their social networks to receive and send information as well as establish, update, and enforce social norms of behavior. Both information acquisition and the impact of social norms within social networks could have large effects on the health behaviors of individuals, especially adolescents, who are particularly responsive to peer pressure. This heightening of peer influence also takes place during the developmental stage when many of the most costly health outcomes and behaviors are initiated. This confluence of events during adolescence sets the stage for a critical period of individual decision-making with long-term consequences and also provides a unique window of opportunity for health intervention. While much recent research has shown robust and important correlations in the health behaviors of socially connected individuals, whether the correlations are causal is still largely unknown for many health behaviors. This application aims to estimate the potential causal relationships and also illuminate potential mechanisms that may be utilized in future interventions. We propose to undertake the development and demonstration of new empirical techniques to evaluate the importance of social networks in the initiation, diffusion or cessation of healthy and unhealthy behaviors. This project will utilize social network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which is the largest study of adolescent friendship networks ever conducted and is nationally representative. Using these data, we will address current gaps in the research knowledge base by pursuing the following aims: (1) We will develop and demonstrate new quantitative methods to estimate the causal effects of friend influences on health behaviors during adolescence, including tobacco and alcohol use, weight and other outcomes; (2) We will develop and demonstrate new quantitative techniques to examine the influence of peers on the timing of initiation and duration of unhealthy behaviors; (3) We will explore policy relevant structural elements of friendship networks (distance of social ties, measures of "importance" in a social network) in order to examine how to target resources to maximize the health benefits of an intervention. We focus on adolescence due to its importance in determining initiation into a host of unhealthy behaviors as well as the importance of peer influence during this development stage. However, the methods we develop are general enough to apply to other social networks. Findings from our investigations will increase understanding of the role of social networks in health behavior determination as well as enhance our ability to propose specific policies targeted to attain the largest benefits of intervention. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application includes a series of projects to undertake the development and demonstration of new empirical techniques to evaluate the importance of adolescent social networks in the initiation, diffusion and cessation of healthy and unhealthy behaviors, such as tobacco and alcohol use, weight outcomes and other risky behaviors. Using our results, new interventions can be proposed to both reduce the likelihood that adolescents initiate unhealthy behaviors and increase the likelihood of quitting as well as leverage specific features of social networks, such as critical players, to multiply the benefits of behavioral intervention throughout the network.