2024/05/02 by Edoardo M. Airoldi, Nicholas A. Christakis · 1 voice · 1 citation
Health Professions · Nursing · #Child Nutrition and Water Access #Community Health and Development #Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations
paper · doi:10.1126/science.adi5147
openalex publication_date 2024/05/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Certain people occupy topological positions within social networks that enhance their effectiveness at inducing spillovers. We mapped face-to-face networks among 24,702 people in 176 isolated villages in Honduras and randomly assigned villages to targeting methods, varying the fraction of households receiving a 22-month health education package and the method by which households were chosen (randomly versus using the friendship-nomination algorithm). We assessed 117 diverse knowledge, attitude, and practice outcomes. Friendship-nomination targeting reduced the number of households needed to attain specified levels of village-wide uptake. Knowledge spread more readily than behavior, and spillovers extended to two degrees of separation. Outcomes that were intrinsically easier to adopt also manifested greater spillovers. Network targeting using friendship nomination effectively promotes population-wide improvements in welfare through social contagion.