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PubMed1985

The funding market for nursing research.

The finance for nursing research is obtained from a funding market where the nursing profession competes with other groups for limited resources. In order to compete effectively in that market, nursing needs to understand the nature of the market and the importance of the professional and social networks which underpin it. This paper aims to enhance that understanding in two ways. Firstly it presents a descriptive profile of the main types of funding agencies relevant to nursing (government departments, the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health Education Council, the locally organized research schemes of the regions, private charities and industry) and summarizes the position of nursing in each sector. Secondly, the paper analyses the way in which the social networks of the funding market monitor and control the competition for research resources and how the nursing profession can best approach those social networks.

Charities↗
PubMed2006

Applications of small-world network theory in alcohol epidemiology.

OBJECTIVE: This study develops a mathematical model of alcohol abuse in structured populations, such as communities and college campuses. The study employs a network model that has the capacity to incorporate a variety of forms of connectivity membership besides personal acquaintance, such as geographic proximity and common organizations. The model also incorporates a resilience dimension that indicates the susceptibility of each individual in a network to alcohol abuse. The model has the capacity to simulate the effect of moving alcohol abusers into networks of nonabusers, either as the result of treatment or membership in self-help organizations. METHOD: The study employs a small-world model. A cubic equation for each person (vertex on a graph) governs the evolution of an individual's state between 0 and 1 with regard to alcohol dependence, with 1 indicating absolute certainty of alcohol dependence. The simulations are dependent on initial conditions, the structure of the network, and the resilience distribution of the network. The simulations incorporate multiple realizations of social networks, showing the effect of different network structures. RESULTS: The model suggests that the prevalence of alcohol abuse can be minimized by treating a relatively small percentage of the study population. In the small populations that we studied, the critical point was 10% or less of the study population, but we emphasize that this is within the limitations and assumptions of this model. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a simple model that incorporates the influence of the social network neighbors in structured populations shows promise for helping to inform treatment and prevention policy.

Alcoholics Anonymous↗
PubMed2005

Participating in social activities helps preserve cognitive function: an analysis of a longitudinal, population-based study of the elderly.

BACKGROUND: This study examines how changes in cognition over time are related to participation in social activities and the extent of social networks. METHODS: Data are drawn from a population-based, longitudinal study that began in 1989 among elderly Taiwanese. An over-dispersed Poisson model is used to regress the number of failed cognitive tasks (0-5) in 1996, 1999, and 2000 on prior measures of cognitive impairment, social activities, social networks, health status, and sociodemographic characteristics. The analysis sample comprises 2387 individuals, who contribute a total of 4603 observations across three survey intervals (1993-96, 1996-99, 1999-2000). RESULTS: After adjusting for prior cognitive impairment, baseline health status, and sociodemographic factors, respondents who participated in one or two social activities failed 13% fewer cognitive tasks (P < 0.01) than those with no social activities; those who engaged in three or more activities failed 33% fewer cognitive tasks (P < 0.001). In contrast, none of the social network measures was related to cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a social structure where elderly persons often live with their children and social interaction is likely to be more family-centered than in western countries, data from Taiwan suggest that participation in social activities outside the family may have a bigger impact on cognitive function than social contacts with family or non-relatives.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Changes in life satisfaction over a two and a half year period among very elderly people living in London.

Research evidence concerning the contributions of social networks and support to the subjective wellbeing (i.e. life satisfaction) of older persons is not consistent. This paper reports the results of an investigation of the effects life satisfaction at baseline, social network type and health status, on life satisfaction at follow-up at two and a half years later among people ages 85+ living in the East end of London. The percentage of the total variation in overall life satisfaction which was explained by the model was 47%. Baseline life satisfaction score explained most of this (43%), and the remaining variation was explained largely by functional status and age. Previous analyses of baseline life satisfaction reported that health and functional status had accounted for most of the variation between groups, far more than social network and support variables.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1986

Satisfaction with social support during crisis: intimacy and self-esteem as critical determinants.

Satisfaction with social support was studied longitudinally in a group of 113 Israeli women following the outcome of both normal and medically complicated pregnancies. Greater intimacy with spouse and with friends were found to be related to greater satisfaction with support received during this crisis period. Intimate ties contributed to satisfaction with support independent of self-esteem, social network parameters, and type of pregnancy outcome. Social network parameters and pregnancy outcome were not found to be related to satisfaction with support. Among women low in self-esteem, greater intimacy with family was found to be related to lower satisfaction with support if the women lacked intimate ties with spouse or a friend. The findings were discussed in light of clinical and social psychological theories regarding reaction to aid.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Social ties and change in social ties in relation to subsequent total and cause-specific mortality and coronary heart disease incidence in men.

The authors prospectively examined the effects of social ties and change in social ties, as measured by a well-known social network index, on total and cause-specific mortality and on coronary heart disease incidence in 28,369 US male health professionals aged 42-77 years in 1988. Over 10 years, the relative risk of total mortality for men in the lower two levels of social integration compared with more socially integrated men was 1.19 (95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.34) after controlling for age, occupation, health behaviors, general physical condition, coronary risk factors, and dietary habits. In multivariate analysis, deaths from accidents and suicide and from other noncancer, noncardiovascular causes were significantly increased among less socially connected men. Socially isolated men also had an increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease (multivariate relative risk = 1.82, 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 3.23). An increase in the overall social network index between 1988 and 1996 was not significantly associated with subsequent 2-year mortality. In analyses of change in social network components restricted to older men, each categorical unit increase in number of close friends was significantly associated with a 29% decrease in risk of death. Increase in religious service attendance over time was also significantly predictive of decreased mortality.

Accidents↗
PubMed1994

The intricacy of the ordinary.

Schizophrenia constitutes a lifelong vulnerability in relation to life stresses and the maintenance of social networks. Satisfactory quality of life--understood as subjective well-being in a lifetime perspective--is the ultimate treatment objective. This paper draws on research and clinical experience from Lofoten--the catchment area of a psychiatric out-patient clinic in Northern Norway. This work stresses the quality of life for the social network around the psychiatric patient as a consideration in its own right. The patient's coping resources and social network are regarded as a continuous professional concern.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

Community structure in social and biological networks.

A number of recent studies have focused on the statistical properties of networked systems such as social networks and the Worldwide Web. Researchers have concentrated particularly on a few properties that seem to be common to many networks: the small-world property, power-law degree distributions, and network transitivity. In this article, we highlight another property that is found in many networks, the property of community structure, in which network nodes are joined together in tightly knit groups, between which there are only looser connections. We propose a method for detecting such communities, built around the idea of using centrality indices to find community boundaries. We test our method on computer-generated and real-world graphs whose community structure is already known and find that the method detects this known structure with high sensitivity and reliability. We also apply the method to two networks whose community structure is not well known--a collaboration network and a food web--and find that it detects significant and informative community divisions in both cases.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1991

The contributions of interpersonal conflict to chronic pain in the presence or absence of organic pathology.

This study investigated the influences of social support and interpersonal conflict on chronic pain in patients with arthritis or with myofascial disorders. Measures of social support, conflict, and pain were drawn from subscales of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Pain Inventory, the Family Environment Scale, and the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory. Patients with myofascial disorders reported significantly worse pain (sensory and affective), higher depression scores, more interpersonal conflict, and less support from others than patients with arthritis, but did not differ from them on personality traits. Also, the contributions of conflict to pain were found to depend on the nature of the chronic disorder and on the source of the conflict, i.e., significant other, family, or social network members. For patients with arthritis, less intense pain (sensory and affective) was associated with higher family conflict. Less intense sensory pain in arthritis was also associated with more punishing responses from the significant other to pain. For patients with myofascial disorders, more intense affective pain was associated with higher social network conflict. Social support did not significantly contribute to pain for either group. Thus, chronic painful disorders may differ on the influences that social relationships have on pain. The implications of these differences for treatment are discussed.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1981

Schizophrenia: a network crisis.

The results of a study comparing the structure and function of the social networks of a group of first-admission schizophrenics with those of a group of multiple-admission schizophrenics are presented. Structurally, the networks of the first-admission patients are larger and more interconnected. Functionally, their networks have a greater percentage of multiplex and nondependent links. On the basis of these data, it is concluded that the most dramatic changes in social networks develop after the patient's first hospitalization. The dissolution of the patient's network is attributed to the antagonistic attitudes and reactions of those close to the patient, as well as to the patient's impaired social competence. Schizophrenia seemingly is a network crisis not only for the individual but for the network as a whole. It is suggested that active intervention at the time of the first psychotic episode may be helpful in avoiding network collapse and the patient's resultant social isolation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Social marginalization of overweight children.

BACKGROUND: Overweight is the most common health problem that faces children and adolescents. Although the correlation among overweight, low self-esteem, and depression is well known, social isolation among overweight children and adolescents has not been studied. OBJECTIVE: To investigate social networks of overweight and normal-weight adolescents in a large, nationally representative sample. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, nationally representative cohort study. Population A total of 90 118 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years who were enrolled in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, of which a 1:5 subsample was selected for detailed in-home assessment, including height and weight measurements (n = 17 557). Overweight was defined according to body mass index (>95th percentile for age and sex). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: This analysis focuses on the number of friendship nominations each adolescent received from other adolescents. The number of friendship nominations and other social network measures were calculated using statistical software. RESULTS: Overweight adolescents were more likely to be socially isolated and to be peripheral to social networks than were normal-weight adolescents. Although overweight adolescents listed similar numbers of friends as normal-weight adolescents, overweight adolescents received significantly fewer friendship nominations from others than were received by normal-weight adolescents (mean [SE] number of friendship nominations, 3.39 [0.08] vs 4.79 [0.04]; P<.001). Overweight adolescents were also more likely to receive no friendship nominations than were normal-weight adolescents (odds ratio, 1.71; 95% confidence interval, 1.39-2.20). Decreased television viewing (P<.001), increased levels of sports participation (P<.001), and increased participation in school clubs (P<.001) were associated with significantly more friendship nominations and higher network centrality scores among both overweight and normal-weight adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Many overweight adolescents are socially marginalized. Such isolation may aggravate the social and emotional consequences of overweight in this age group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Expectations of support among White British and Asian-Indian older people in Britain: the interdependence of formal and informal spheres.

Abstract The discourse surrounding community care characterises informal support being superior to and preferred over formal sources of support, with this distinction buttressed by policy changes. There is a lack of understanding of the interdependence of both spheres of support. This article argues that an individual's experience and expectation of one type of support is often made in relation to his or her understanding, expectation and experience of other sources of support. There is also an urgent need to understand how these associations operate in a cross-cultural context as it is naïve to assume that normative expectations will remain constant when the relationship between family, state and other sources of support are unstable. This article reports on findings emerging from part of a Growing Older study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain to explore the relationship between quality of life and the social networks and support of older people from different ethnic groups. Research involved the use of a questionnaire comprising closed- and open-ended questions. In addition, in-depth qualitative interviews covering the existence and nature of social networks and support, as well as perceptions and expectations of these, were also conducted. This article reports on data relating to a sample comprising seven White British men, 10 White British women, 12 Asian-Indian men, and nine Asian-Indian women aged 55 and over derived from the Family Resources Survey. Findings reveal that the high level of expectation for family support amongst Asian-Indian respondents coexists with a high level of expectation for state support and an acknowledgement that the ideal of family support may not always materialise. Amongst White British respondents, the high level of expectation for state support exists regardless of whether the respondent has satisfactory informal social networks. This expectation is commonly expressed in terms of rights and entitlement by White British respondents but not by Asian-Indians. Associated with this, Asian-Indian respondents display a consistently lower level of awareness and usage of a range of health and social care services. Regardless of the extent of current and past usage of services, however, respondents from both groups overwhelmingly indicate an expectation for the continued provision of such services as they would like to be able to use one or more of these at some stage.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Social support networks among families of children with craniofacial anomalies.

Investigated the social support available to families of children born with craniofacial anomalies and the perceived degree of satisfaction derived from these relationships. Thirty-six children (1 month to 5 years old) born with craniofacial deformities (FD) were matched by age and sex to 36 children with no significant physical or behavioral problems. The Social Support Questionnaire-Revised, the Revised Denver Developmental Screening Test, and a semistructured interview were administered. Results indicated that parents of FD children reported less available social support and were significantly less satisfied with their support. Parents of children who had more severe physical impairments and were rated as less attractive reported having less available and less satisfying social support. In particular, the social competence of the child was the most important predictor of parental social support. This result is interesting as the parents of FD children appeared to underreport the presence of behavioral-psychological problems in their children.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1981

Structural and social psychological factors in the decision to seek medical care for symptoms.

Panel data are presented from the Los Angeles Health Survey, in which 1 year of symptom experience is analyzed. Of the 1,210 individuals originally in the panel, 769 reported at least one symptom in reinterviews conducted every 6 weeks during the study year. The dependent variable in the analysis is whether or not the individual decided to seek medical attention for his symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to organize the independent variables into five groups: 1) need; 2) social structure; 3) organization of care; 4) general social network patterns and health orientations; and 5) social network influences and personal beliefs specific to the symptoms. Of the 57 per cent of the variance explained by the entire set of independent variables, need factors accounted for 12 per cent and network influences and personal beliefs specific to the symptom accounted for 42 per cent. In spite of the amount of variance explained in this analysis, the allocation of the explained variance among the predictor variables raises some disturbing questions regarding our ability to understand the decision to use health services.

California↗
PubMed1988

Gender differences in the relationship of widowhood and psychological well-being among low income elderly.

The present study examined the influence of widowhood on the psychological well-being of low income elderly women and men while controlling for a number of mediating variables. Both widows and widowers were found to have lower psychological well-being than their married counterparts once health and social network differences were controlled. Health status and social networks were the major predictors of psychological well-being. Married women reported many more stress related ailments than any other group. Among women, friends contributed more to psychological well-being than family contact. Among men, family rather than friends were more highly correlated with psychological well-being. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

[Using natural helping systems].

Professional psychiatric help alone is not sufficient especially in the treatment of chronic mental illness. One must offer additional support also known as social support or social network. Informal helpers are family members, friends, civilian helpers, self-help groups with contracts to media and political levels and so on. In spite of different aims they have a great deal in common such as free-of-charge help, assistance to professional helpers not as their substitutes, and being in touch with normal everyday life. Any tensions between professional and informal helpers should be relieved in a constructive manner. Support by informal carers must also be assessed although it is difficult to find the correct approach, since so many variables are involved. The significance of promoting a social network for mental health becomes particularly evident in view of the reduction of the social network in persons suffering from schizophrenia.

Caregivers↗
PubMed2005

Social support networks and medical service use among HIV-positive injection drug users: implications to intervention.

The study used network analysis to identify forms and sources of social support associated with a medical services use among a medically underserved population living with HIV/AIDS. Participants were African American former or current injection drug users (n=295; 34% female, 45% current drug users and 17% AIDS diagnosed). Outcomes were access to the same medical provider, use of outpatient services and emergency room (ER) use with or without subsequent hospitalization. Controlling for AIDS diagnosis, insurance, current drug use and gender, access to the same medical care provider was associated with more females in one's support network and more network sources of emotional support, financial support and instrumental assistance. Adjusting for confounders, outpatient service use was associated with more female support network members and more sources of emotional support. Controlling for participants' drug use and insurance, sub-optimal emergency department use was associated with greater number of active drug users in one's support network. Contrary to other study findings, having a supportive sex partner was associated with lower access to medical care, and kin support was not associated with medical service use. Results indicate that specific sources and forms of social support had differential influences on the sample's utilization of medical services. The findings suggest that promoting HIV-positive African American injection drug users' support network functioning may help improve HIV medical services utilization among this medically underserved population.

Adult↗