An exploration of the Facebook social networks of smokers and non-smokers

Luella Fu, Megan A. Jacobs, Jody Brookover, Thomas W. Valente, Nathan K. Cobb, Amanda L. Graham, Frederic Amblard
2017 PLoS ONE  
Social networks influence health behavior, including tobacco use and cessation. To date, little is known about whether and how the networks of online smokers and non-smokers may differ, or the potential implications of such differences with regards to intervention efforts. Understanding how social networks vary by smoking status could inform public health efforts to accelerate cessation or slow the adoption of tobacco use. Objectives These secondary analyses explore the structure of ego
more » ... of both smokers and nonsmokers collected as part of a randomized control trial conducted within Facebook. Methods During the trial, a total of 14,010 individuals installed a Facebook smoking cessation app: 9,042 smokers who were randomized in the trial, an additional 2,881 smokers who did not meet full eligibility criteria, and 2,087 non-smokers. The ego network for all individuals was constructed out to second-degree connections. Four kinds of networks were constructed: friendship, family, photo, and group networks. From these networks we measured edges, isolates, density, mean betweenness, transitivity, and mean closeness. We also measured diameter, clustering, and modularity without ego and isolates. Logistic regressions were performed with smoking status as the response and network metrics as the primary independent variables and demographics and Facebook utilization metrics as covariates. Results The four networks had different characteristics, indicated by different multicollinearity issues and by logistic regression output. Among Friendship networks, the odds of smoking were PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187332 November 2, 2017 1 / 15 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Fu L, Jacobs MA, Brookover J, Valente TW, Cobb NK, Graham AL (2017) An exploration of the Facebook social networks of smokers and nonsmokers. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0187332. https://doi.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187332 pmid:29095958 pmcid:PMC5667804 fatcat:r7rn5bsdmfd7haspflhuoacjr4