社会网络对健康行为的影响：以西部地区新生儿母乳喂养为例

Impact of Social Networks on Healthy Behaviors:An Example of Breastfeeding in Western China

个人社会网络对健康的积极作用已得到诸多研究的验证。研究认为,社会网络能推动人们的健康行为,从而提升健康水平,但这一影响机制尚需经验研究的支持。本研究利用一项大规模社会调查数据,检验了社会网络对"母乳喂养"这一健康行为的影响机制。研究结果发现,新生儿母亲社会网络中强关系比例越高,越可能在新生儿成长的早期为母亲提供实际的帮助和社会支持,从而提高母亲提供母乳喂养的可能性;她们的社会网络中如果有医务人员,能更有效地传递相关知识和信息,也可提高母乳喂养的可能。因此,社会网络主要通过提供社会支持与信息来促进健康行为,从而提高健康水平。

Although the positive effects of social networks on people＇s health have been confirmed in research, studies on the mechanisms for such effects are rare. Some researchers argue that social networks promote health by encouraging people to indorse healthy behaviors. However, the proposed mechanism needs further empirical tests. Based on the data from a large-scale questionnaire survey of more than 44 000 sampled households in 11 provinces in Western China, this study attempted to test the mechanism by which social networks influenced health. In contrast to the existing studies, this study didn＇t examine the direct relationship between personal networks and his/her health. Rather, it targeted the mothers of newborns to investigate how their social networks influenced their decision of a healthy behavior of breastfeeding. Regardless of the fact that breastfeeding had generally been recognized as important to the health of both the infant and the mother, the result revealed that, among the mothers of newborns younger than 6 months in the Western provinces of China in 2004, only 22 percent provided exclusive breastfeeding to their children. Further analysis showed that social networks correlated significantly with an enhanced probability for mothers to breastfeed. If a new mother＇s network had more strong ties, it was more likely to provide actual assistance and social support to the mother when the newborn was in early development stages; thus, the mother became more likely to breasffeed the infant. If mothers＇ networks had health professionals, relevant knowledge and information would be effectively disseminated and the likelihood of breasffeeding would be raised. The current study tells us that social networks help improve people＇s health primarily via their provision of social support and information for healthy behaviors.