Dear Applied Statistics Workshop,<br><br>Please join us this Wednesday when Nicholas Christakis--Professor, Department of Sociology (Harvard University) and Medical Sociology (Harvard Medical School)--who will be present &quot;Eat Drink and Be Merry: The Spread of Health Phenomena In Social Networks&quot;.&nbsp; Nicholas provided the following abstract: <br>
<br><br><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Our
work has involved the quantitative investigation of whether and how
various health-related phenomena might &nbsp;spread from person to person.
&nbsp;For example, we explored the nature and extent of person-to-person
spread of obesity. &nbsp;We developed a densely interconnected network of
12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003. &nbsp;&nbsp;We used
longitudinal statistical models and network-scientific methods to
examine whether weight gain in one person was associated with weight
gain in friends, siblings, spouses, and neighbors. &nbsp;Discernible
clusters of obese persons were present in the network at all time
points, and the clusters extended three people deep. &nbsp;These clusters
were not solely due to selective formation of social ties. &nbsp;A friend
becoming obese in a given time interval increased a person&#39;s chances of
becoming obese by 57% (95% CI: &nbsp;6%-123%). &nbsp;Among pairs of adult
siblings, one becoming obese increased the chance that the other became
obese by 40% (21%-60%). &nbsp;Among spouses, one becoming obese increased
the likelihood that the other became obese by 37% (7%-73%). &nbsp;Among
those working in small firms, a co-worker becoming obese increased a
person&#39;s chances of becoming obese by 41% (17-59%). &nbsp;Immediate
neighbors did not exhibit these effects. &nbsp;We have also conducted
similar investigations of other health behaviors, such as smoking,
drinking, exercising, and the receipt of health screening, and of other
health phenomena, such as happiness and depression. &nbsp;Various aspects of
our findings suggest that the spread of social norms may partly
underlie inter-personal health effects. &nbsp;Our findings have implications
for clinical and public health interventions, and for
cost-effectiveness assessments of preventive and therapeutic
interventions. &nbsp;They also lay a new foundation for public health by
providing a rationale for the claim that health is not just an
individual, but also a collective, phenomenon</span>.<br><br><br>Nicholas also provided a link to his paper<a href="http://people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ejgrimmer/Christakis4208.pdf"> here</a><br><br>The applied statistics workshop meets in room N354 in CGIS-Knafel, (1737 Cambridge st.)&nbsp; A light lunch will be served at 12 noon with the presentation beginning around 1215.&nbsp; Please contact me with any questions<br>
<br>Cheers<br>Justin Grimmer<br>