Department of Health Policy & Health Services Research, Boston University Henry M Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Boston, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Feb 3;23(1):238. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15146-4.
Public housing residents in the United States face disproportionately high risks for disease, presenting an urgent need for interventions. Evidence suggests interventions leveraging social networks can be successful when relationships are homophilous, as this leads to pooling of risk behaviors among interconnected alters. Yet, we know little about networks of public housing residents. To assess the feasibility of network-based interventions, we investigate the incidence of health-based homophily in public housing developments in Boston, Massachusetts. Employing multilevel models (HLM), we find that respondents report their own health characteristics to be similar to their network partners on oral health, weight, and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and foods. We discuss the implications of our findings for health-based interventions in low-income communities.
美国公共住房居民面临不成比例的高疾病风险，这迫切需要采取干预措施。有证据表明，当人际关系具有同质性时，利用社交网络的干预措施可以取得成功，因为这会导致相互关联的变化者之间的风险行为汇集。然而，我们对公共住房居民的网络知之甚少。为了评估基于网络的干预措施的可行性，我们调查了马萨诸塞州波士顿的公共住房开发项目中基于健康的同质性的发生率。我们采用多层次模型（HLM）发现，受访者报告自己的健康特征与网络伙伴在口腔健康、体重以及糖饮料和食物的消费方面相似。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对低收入社区基于健康的干预措施的意义。
