Guy Harling
@harlingg.bsky.social
130 followers 240 following 52 posts
Epidemiologist @uclglobalhealth.bsky.social & @ahri-news.bsky.social. Focus on data collection, social networks & health (HIV, mental health, caregiving, vaccines). Mostly in southern Africa.
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harlingg.bsky.social
I'm delighted to see colleagues @ubcpharmsci.bsky.social - led by Anuoluwapo Awotunde & Kerry Wilbur - investigating how medical & family care is networked in British Columbia.

The limited ties between these groups highlights the need for improved network collaboration
Interprofessional Care and Informal Support Networks of Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults | Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement | Cambridge Core
Interprofessional Care and Informal Support Networks of Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults
www.doi.org
Reposted by Guy Harling
zpneal.bsky.social
Want to promote transparency and clarity in network research by helping develop 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 (𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃)?

Sign up to get involved here: tinyurl.com/help-with-GR...

▪️ All career stages welcome
▪️ All fields welcome
▪️ Be compensated for your time
GRAND Recruitment
Complete this short questionnaire to help develop Guidelines for Reporting About Network Data (GRAND).
tinyurl.com
harlingg.bsky.social
A very different context from my research, but yet so many similarities and thus learnings for me.

I need to read more anthro networks...
harlingg.bsky.social
Also: 30% of parents did not plan to vaccinate. Which is frankly depressing to me
harlingg.bsky.social
A quick reminder: vaccine demand is socially contagious:

Georges Khalil, Stephanie Staras ++ show that parental HPV vaccination intent in Florida is closely linked to support from confidants, wider network and family

My takeaway: tell people around you if you support vaccines
www.mdpi.com
harlingg.bsky.social
I'm not stats strong enough/can't dedicate enough reading time to determine how the two papers fit together. Maybe one day I will, or someone will explain them to me🙂
harlingg.bsky.social
A couple of new serious networks & stats papers with a shared last author (Laura Forstiere @yalesph.bsky.social):

1. Falco Bargagli-Stoffi ++ highlight the need to account for clustering when evaluating the impact of information/diffusion interventions, and how to do this in a principled manner
Heterogeneous treatment and spillover effects under clustered network interference
The bulk of causal inference studies rule out the presence of interference between units. However, in many real-world scenarios, units are interconnected by social, physical, or virtual ties, and the effect of the treatment can spill from one unit to other connected individuals in the network. In this paper, we develop a machine learning method that uses tree-based algorithms and a Horvitz–Thompson estimator to assess the heterogeneity of treatment and spillover effects with respect to individual, neighborhood, and network characteristics in the context of clustered networks and interference within clusters. The proposed network causal tree (NCT) algorithm has several advantages. First, it allows the investigation of the heterogeneity of the treatment effect, avoiding potential bias due to the presence of interference. Second, understanding the heterogeneity of both treatment and spillover effects can guide policymakers in scaling up interventions, designing targeting strategies, and increasing cost-effectiveness. We investigate the performance of our NCT method using a Monte Carlo simulation study and illustrate its application to assess the heterogeneous effects of information sessions on the uptake of a new weather insurance policy in rural China.
projecteuclid.org
harlingg.bsky.social
More or less what we might expect, but useful baseline data. Especially as we start considering mental health in rural South Africa from a network perspective (watch this space)
harlingg.bsky.social
New paper by Emily Long, @mark-glasgow.bsky.social & more: mental health support in rural Scotland linked to alters who are younger, female, egonet-central, longer-term, in frequent contact. And much less common if respondents felt stigma about their mental health
Mental health discussions among rural residents: a social network approach
Published article 9450 Rural and Remote Health
www.rrh.org.au
harlingg.bsky.social
I'm a bit late to this, but important evidence of (non) maintenance of friendship ties as US adolescents leave high school. Also open access at pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
harlingg.bsky.social
Lovely work by Jason Settels & @pbockerman.bsky.social using European @share-eric.bsky.social data to show how increasing social engagement moderates the impact of retirement on quality of life.

Having more contacts seems differentially important at retirement vs other life stages.
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harlingg.bsky.social
A quick thread of recent new (to me) research pubs:
harlingg.bsky.social
This looks like a great opportunity to be set up to succeed. The package includes:

1. Online prep work
2. 1-week in-person workshop
3. 11-month mentorship
4. Possible $7500 seed funding (max 10 slots)

25 places available
harlingg.bsky.social
Do you know a "post-PhD early/mid-career researcher from Southern Africa" who would be interested in support to apply for a grant? @ahri-news.bsky.social, @aphrc.bsky.social & @wellcometrust.bsky.social are building a cohort for a 12-month programme

Intent to submit: 15 Sept; full app: 30 Sept
Empowering Early and Mid-Career African Researchers in Grantsmanship and Research Fundraising
surveys.aphrc.org
harlingg.bsky.social
We go with “you were a ghost”. Which is taken as completely reasonable by all concerned. This may require a certain style of familial humor…
harlingg.bsky.social
Kings evil is scrofula - mostly TB of the neck lymph nodes.

Suddenly is a bit more cryptic (or the opposite)
harlingg.bsky.social
For me this work highlights the vital importance of measuring non-kin network ties, even where kinship remains central to social life

I also really like that ‪@nathumbehav.nature.com‬ wrote an accesible Research Brief to explain the work for a general audience:
Social network cognition among isolated villagers reveals distinct patterns of bias - Nature Human Behaviour
People not only inhabit social networks, but also form beliefs about their social world. We assessed these beliefs in isolated villages in Honduras, and found that individuals overestimated kinship ti...
www.nature.com
harlingg.bsky.social
This work builds on David Krackhardt's seminal work on Cognitive Social Structures, but at >> scale

The authors focus on people's (imperfect) knowledge of social networks, and the (evoluntionary) advantages being able to use network tie knowledge might bring

A huge amount of work & v interesting