Personal network characteristics and body mass index: the role of education among Black Americans

Social inequality, social networks, and health: a scoping review of research on health inequalities from a social network perspective

BACKGROUND

This review summarises the present state of research on health inequalities using a social network perspective, and it explores the available studies examining the interrelations of social inequality, social networks, and health.

METHODS

Using the strategy of a scoping review, as outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (Int J Sci Res Methodol 8:19-32, 2005), our team performed two searches across eight scientific, bibliographic databases including papers published until October 2021. Studies meeting pre-defined eligibility criteria were selected. The data were charted in a table, and then collated, summarised, and reported in this paper.

RESULTS

Our search provided a total of 15,237 initial hits. After deduplication (n = 6,168 studies) and the removal of hits that did not meet our baseline criteria (n = 8,767 studies), the remaining 302 full text articles were examined. This resulted in 25 articles being included in the present review, many of which focused on moderating or mediating network effects. Such effects were found in the majority of these studies, but not in all. Social networks were found to buffer the harsher effects of poverty on health, while specific network characteristics were shown to intensify or attenuate the health effects of social inequalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Our review showed that the variables used for measuring health and social networks differed considerably across the selected studies. Thus, our attempt to establish a consensus of opinion across the included studies was not successful. Nevertheless, the usefulness of social network analysis in researching health inequalities and the employment of health-promoting interventions focusing on social relations was generally acknowledged in the studies. We close by suggesting ways to advance the research methodology, and argue for a greater orientation on theoretical models. We also call for the increased use of structural measures; the inclusion of measures on negative ties and interactions; and the use of more complex study designs, such as mixed-methods and longitudinal studies.

Effect of Network-Based Positive Psychological Nursing Model Combined With Elemene Injection on Negative Emotions, Immune Function and Quality of Life in Lung Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy in the Era of Big Data

Background

With the development of big data, big data interpenetrate in every person's life. Health care is no exception to this trend, especially in regard to nursing analytics. The data that is analyzed and leveraged in this field is gathered from a variety of sources, including electronic health records (EHRs), medical histories, provider notes and mobile applications, creating an accumulation of personalized health information around each individual.

Objective

To explore the effect of the network-based positive psychological nursing model combined with elemene injection on negative emotions, immune function and quality of life (QOL) in patients with lung cancer (LC) undergoing chemotherapy.

Methods

The clinical data of 90 LC patients who underwent chemotherapy in our hospital from December 2020 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, and the patients were equally split into experimental group (EG) and control group (CG) according to the order of enrollment. The patients in CG received routine nursing intervention during chemotherapy, while those in EG received the network-based positive psychological nursing model combined with elemene injection to compare negative emotions, immune function and quality of life (QOL) between the two groups.

Results

Compared with CG, EG had notably higher immune function indexes (P < 0.001), lower serum VEGF and MMP-2 levels (P < 0.001), lower HAMA and HAMD scores (P < 0.05), and higher scores of PTGI, physiological function, psychological function, social function and physical function (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

The network-based positive psychological nursing model combined with elemene injection is a reliable method to enhance the immune function and QOL of LC patients undergoing chemotherapy and alleviate their negative emotions, which has a high clinical application value.

Personal networks and mortality in later life: racial and ethnic differences

Background

Social network characteristics are associated with health outcomes in later life, including mortality. Moreover, there are well-established mortality disparities across race and ethnicity. Although previous studies have documented these associations separately, limited research considers the two in tandem. The present study addressed how the associations between social network characteristics and mortality differ across race and ethnicity in later life.

Methods

Data were from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. At baseline, 3005 respondents were interviewed with regards to their health and social networks. Five years later, 430 respondents had died. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of all-cause mortality over the study period.

Results

Network size and kin composition were negatively associated with mortality, whereas density was positively associated with mortality. There was a stronger negative association between the kin composition and mortality for Hispanic respondents compared with white and Black respondents.

Conclusion

The present study contributes to the large literature documenting the link between social networks and health by highlighting the importance of analyzing networks through a sociocultural lens.