Social Network Structures in African American Churches: Implications for Health Promotion Programs.
J Urban Health
; 96(2): 300-310, 2019 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30747370
ABSTRACT
The prevalence of obesity among African Americans is higher than among other racial/ethnic groups. African American churches hold a central role in promoting health in the community; yet, church-based interventions have had limited impact on obesity. While recent studies have described the influence of social networks on health behaviors, obesity interventions informed by social network analysis have been limited. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 281 African American men and women from three churches in northeast urban cities in the USA. Data were collected on sociodemographic and clinical factors and anthropometrics. Using a social network survey applying a name generator, we computed network level metrics. Exponential random graph models (ERGM) were performed to examine whether each structural property found in the empirical (observed) networks occurred more frequently than expected by chance by comparing the empirical networks to the randomly simulated networks. Overall, church friendship networks were sparse (low density). We also found that while friendship ties were more reciprocated between dyads in church networks, and there were more tendencies for clustering of friendships (significant positive transitive closure) than in random networks, other characteristics such as expansiveness (number of actors with a great number of friends) did not differ from what would be expected by chance in random networks. These data suggest that interventions with African American churches should not assume a unitary network through which a single intervention should be used.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Negro ou Afro-Americano
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Comportamentos Relacionados com a Saúde
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Rede Social
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Enfermagem Paroquial
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Promoção da Saúde
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
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Prevalence_studies
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Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article