Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, Institute for Health Transformation, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia.
Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Rd, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Mar 19;24(1):847. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18354-8.
System dynamics approaches, including group model building (GMB) and causal loop diagrams (CLDs), can be used to document complex public health problems from a community perspective. This paper aims to apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) methods to combine multiple CLDs created by local communities into a summary CLD, to identify common drivers of the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Thirteen community CLDs regarding children and young people health and wellbeing were merged into one diagram involving three steps: (1) combining variable names; (2) CLD merging, where multiple CLDs were combined into one CLD with a set of unique variables and connections; (3) paring, where the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to generate a cut-point to reduce the number of variables and connections and to rank the overall importance of each variable in the merged CLD.
Combining variable names resulted in 290 variables across the 13 CLDS. A total of 1,042 causal links were identified in the merged CLD. The DEMATEL analysis of the merged CLD identified 23 common variables with a net importance between 1.0 and 4.5 R + C values and 57 causal links. The variables with the highest net importance were 'mental health' and 'social connection & support' classified as high net receivers of influence within the system.
Combining large CLDs into a simple diagram represents a generalisable model of the drivers of complex health problems.
系统动力学方法，包括群体建模（GMB）和因果关系图（CLD），可用于从社区角度记录复杂的公共卫生问题。本文旨在应用社会网络分析（SNA）方法将多个由当地社区创建的 CLD 合并为一个汇总 CLD，以确定影响儿童和青少年健康和福祉的共同驱动因素。
将 13 个关于儿童和青少年健康与福祉的社区 CLD 合并为一个图，涉及三个步骤：（1）合并变量名称；（2）CLD 合并，将多个 CLD 合并为一个具有一组独特变量和连接的 CLD；（3）配对，使用决策试验和评估实验室（DEMATEL）方法生成一个切点，以减少变量和连接的数量，并对合并后的 CLD 中每个变量的整体重要性进行排名。
合并变量名称后，13 个 CLD 中共产生了 290 个变量。合并后的 CLD 中总共确定了 1042 个因果关系。合并后的 CLD 的 DEMATEL 分析确定了 23 个共同变量，其净影响介于 1.0 和 4.5 R+C 值之间，因果关系为 57 个。净影响最高的变量是“心理健康”和“社会联系与支持”，它们被归类为系统中具有较高影响力的高净接收者。
将大型 CLD 合并为一个简单的图表代表了一种复杂健康问题驱动因素的可推广模型。
