Dissemination of Health Information within Social Networks

TL;DR

This study examines how health information about Campylobacter spreads through social networks in France, emphasizing the role of individual traits and network structure in influencing diffusion patterns.

Contribution

It introduces percolation models highlighting the importance of recipient characteristics and social ties in health information dissemination.

Findings

Recipient traits influence information spread more than sender traits

Interest in the topic affects likelihood of information transmission

Information diffusion follows patterned social network structures

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate, how information about a common food born health hazard, known as Campylobacter, spreads once it was delivered to a random sample of individuals in France. The central question addressed here is how individual characteristics and the various aspects of social network influence the spread of information. A key claim of our paper is that information diffusion processes occur in a patterned network of social ties of heterogeneous actors. Our percolation models show that the characteristics of the recipients of the information matter as much if not more than the characteristics of the sender of the information in deciding whether the information will be transmitted through a particular tie. We also found that at least for this particular advisory, it is not the perceived need of the recipients for the information that matters but their general interest in the topic.