Health Networks

Early Approaches

Studies of the effects of social networks on health emerged in the 1970s through the work of innovators such as John Cassel and Sydney Cobb, as well as Lisa Berkman and S. Leonard Syme, whose work focused on theorizing and/or empirically demonstrating that social networks affect mortality. It was suggested that mortality, and morbidity, occurred through various avenues—for instance, shared norms about lifestyle behaviors (such as cigarette smoking or physical activity) may be powerful sources of social influence with direct consequences for the health of social network members. A further pathway through which social networks can influence health is through the promotion of exposure to infectious disease agents via human-to-human contact, [Page 347]such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These theories come under the umbrella of sociology of health and illness, a field concerned with the social dimensions of health and illness. Three main areas are covered in this field of sociology: the conceptualization of health and illness, the study of their measurement and social distribution, and the explanation of patterns of health and illness. Clarification of these areas has brought about further attention on health networks per se.

Rather than limiting analyses to the examination of how social networks influence health, examining health networks as a construct in and of itself is increasingly attracting theoretical and empirical consideration. Previous analyses have reported the role of social support in determining individual health and spillover effects of illness from one person to another; thus, they have all documented the interconnectedness or interdependence of health among socially tied individuals. In short, illness, disability, health behaviors, healthcare use, and death in one person are associated with similar outcomes in numerous others to whom that person is tied. This suggests that there is a nonbiological transmission of illness, good health, and help-seeking behavior. This transmission of both health and illness occurs through the construct of health networks. However, one must ensure that focus is not maintained upon the attributes of the individual but on the relationships and ties to others within the network.

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