Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Do your friends keep you healthy?

This article describes recent research on how social networks (not FB, but flesh-and-blood ones!) reinforce healthy or unhealthy behavior. Do you find the research convincing? Are the results surprising? If so, what might be the implications for public health policy and health care professionals in caring for their patients?

7 comments:

  1. After reading this article and considering the implications of the various studies conducted, I was convinced of the results reached by the studies. However, I don’t find the results all too surprising. Eating French fries while your friends are eating healthy salads makes you feel like self conscious- nobody likes being the odd one out. Being around healthy people can also inspire you into self-improvement as well (without the shame aspect). But this isn’t exactly a revelation- I think we have always been aware that our friends define who we are to some extent. But if the effect of social networks on behavior is really as significant as the studies in this article suggest, public health policies should be tweaked so that they can take full advantage of the fact. If proper research can locate the ‘social butterfly’ of a group and administer a vaccine early enough, perhaps a huge epidemic could have been prevented. Therefore, public health policy becomes more community based and more effective. Likewise, health care professionals can no longer concentrate on treating with just one individual in mind. If an obese individual is surrounded by family and friends also suffering from obesity (and if the source of obesity is environmental rather than genetic), the likelihood of he or she adopting healthier practices is slim. Rather, health care professionals should focus on a community based approach to promote healthy living and healthy behaviors.

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  2. This article has valid points on how friends influence our behaviors. I'm convinced by the research shown in this article, however, it doesn't surprise me at all. We all know that friends have an influence over one another. That's why there's the term peer pressure. It's hard for someone to not want to conform to the group, especially if the group is their close friends. However, I'm not sure if public health policy for health care professionals should change their ways. While I understand the benefit from being more community based and potentially stopping epidemics or unhealthy behavior, I don't like the idea of not focusing on the individual. Every individual is essentially different regardless of how similar our behavior is to that of our friends. Our immune systems and our bodies all react differently to different medications, therapies, vaccines, etc. Taking the focus off of the individual makes it seem like you're not really helping them but just focused on helping everyone else, which doesn't seem right. It's a decision of an individual to live the lifestyle they want, whether it be healthy or unhealthy. Changing one person's unhealthy habits can make a difference at the very least for that person. If their friends or family want to make that change as well, then that's their choice. Not everyone who is surrounded by obese people will stay obese just like not everyone who goes to a party will drink alcohol. There are exceptions and while they aren't infinite in size, I think it shows that focusing on an individual does in the long run help them. I just can't wrap my brain around changing public health policy to focus on not just the individual but all their friends. I think it becomes a little intrusive.

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  3. I agree with the results of the studies conducted, and that the use of these findings by health care policy-makers can effectively combat spread of diseases and epidemics just as Nancy mentioned before. I think it is an interesting, unique approach that theoretically should be very effective due to the strong influence of social networks on individual actions. I myself am motivated by the people I am close with who strive to be healthy and productive, and by making healthy lifestyle choices such as eating right and exercising, I provide for them the same motivation to be healthy. If healthcare policies can integrate some form of “community incentive” for good health, I believe we will see declines in chronic illness and maybe even help slow the obesity epidemic by encouraging people to engage in healthier lifestyles. In this regard, good health becomes more of a shared responsibility, instead of merely an individual’s choice. Similarly, having a social network provides a team-like support system where your family and friends can help you to make better lifestyle choices to improve your overall well-being as well as benefit the group.

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  4. Intuitively, these results would be expected and are not very impressive. We all notice that it is hard not to conform to trends that we see others participating in. Peer pressure is a powerful force. As for the utility of the results with a regard for public health, I believe this is feasible. However, as described in the article, there is a long way to go before this becomes a mainstay in public health's arsenal of tools to make the public more healthy. The downfall of the proposed early detection system of using friend groups as "sentinel nodes" but in the human body, seems to be questions of confidentiality and invasion of privacy. The system seems to require officials to define friend groups. Seemingly, this means that they will be asking people to disclose whom they are friends with in order to sort out social circles. Will everyone be open to disclosing their friend groups? If someone does not want to disclose whom they spend time with does that begin the downfall of the system? It is conceivable that a person may spend a significant amount of time with one circle of friends, but is embarrassed to disclose this. Does this not pose a significant problem for officials? More questions arise when we consider that these officials will be following our electronic medical records. If something pops up as a red flag for disease exposure in one's medical records, do the public health officials have to warn the rest of the friend group this individual was a part of? Does the individual whose been flagged get named? Will this not single out the individual in this group of friends as a malignancy? What if the epidemic they are concerned about is obesity? Who wants to be singled out in a group of fat people as the "original" fat person that spread obese habits to the rest of the group?

    The early detection system seems to have its advantages, but as I discussed above, I think there are a lot of glaring disadvantages to it that need to be considered. On the other hand, the more promising use of social networks, as mentioned in the end of the article, is to promote good health and prevention of disease. Social networks attempting to promote good health and habits already are prevalent in society, the article mentions weight watchers, and have been shown to be useful. I believe we should focus on this side of healthy social networks for prevention rather than early detection of disease, as helpful as it could prove to be, the grievances that may quickly become associated with it outweigh the advantages, at least for now.

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  5. As my classmates have already mentioned, the results of the studies described in this article are very convincing, but not surprising. Individuals, especially young people, are more connected with each other today than they have been in the past. We have cell phones we can use, at all times, to call and text our friends as well as access the internet to check our email and social networking websites. Therefore, it is not surprising that that our social networks have a profound influence on the choices we make. We are a generation that loves to jump on social trends, whether it is helping the victims of a natural disaster or eating organic foods, and the power of these trends is magnified through our social networks. Many industries have capitalized on this behavior, and public health professionals have the potential exploit our love of interpersonal connection and create interventions based on our social networks.

    I have heard about successful public health interventions that have used our social networks to decrease the prevalence of obesity among Americans. I am slightly more skeptical about the ability to use these networks to curb disease outbreaks, but again, the evidence from the study described in the article was convincing. If we view these social networks as the source for a lot of disease/healthy habit transmission, then it seems that we have the ability to stop or limit a lot of health problems, from STDs to diabetes. By identifying individuals or groups of individuals at the center of these social networks, and vaccinating or conveying a health message that will influence other individuals' social networks, it appears that we can drastically alter the number of people affected by a particular health problem.

    Despite this success with public health interventions, it appears that a physician, for example, would need to be fully aware of a patient's interactions in order to use this data effectively. The physician would need to know the patient's social status in order to determine how to treat the patient in the best way possible. Currently, doctors act in the best interests of the patient. Under a new system of thought that focuses on the social network, the doctor may act in a way that would benefit the social network rather than the individual patient.

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  6. The research presented in this article is definitely convincing, but not very surprising, as many people have already stated. Social networks serve to connect people so that friends of friends eventually become friends. This article describes how the more often you are around someone, the more alike you both become, regarding appearance, behavior, and even health. It is not only the culture of today's society that influences us but also the culture of our immediate social surroundings that serve to directly impact how we look and act. The more we interact with others, the more likely we are to become like others. The article discusses how people who are more social active are also more likely to contract an illness, such as the flu. I thought that this made a lot of sense, considering how quickly the H1N1 virus spread. I was thoroughly intrigued at the method used to track the spread of the virus, which consisted of researchers following and monitoring groups of friends and their friends to try to reach the core or source. People are more affected by their social networks than they may think, which is demonstrated by the blatant similarities between people who are friends. Your immediate family and close friends definitely have a big influence over certain choices you make and actions you take. Health care professionals should definitely take that into consideration when evaluating people's health because the behaviors and tendencies that contribute to it will likely have arose from their social network.

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  7. Not a surprise to many, the community has often proved to be one of the most impacting forces in a person's life. Whether it be a simple comfortable conversation with your neighbor or a town meeting to organize local flu clinics, the social interaction between people is what keeps our minds and bodies active and healthy. Communication about the spread of disease or the support issued with the onset of disease is required for optimal public health of a community.
    In addition, tight social networks, proven as being able to increase or maintain health have a strain of similarity to a national health care system. By simply being citizens in the American society, we have been given certain "unalienable rights." However, by being a part of society, we also give up some of our rights and are forced to hold specific burdens and responsibilities (such as mandatory vaccinations) in order to maintain the social well-being for the greater good. Within personal relationships, the same is true. Helping friends and family members within your social network, looking out for the interest of more than yourself, allows for these same people to be comfortable reciprocating when the roles are reversed. The national health care debate brings rise to the basic agreement of a society: the individual must give up certain personal freedoms for the benefit of living in an organized civilization; if done by all individuals, one can only hope that each individual will look out for each other.

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