Social Networks and Smoking in Rural Women: Intervention Implications

Abstract

Objectives To characterize the social network characteristics of women in Ohio Appalachia and according to smoking status. Methods Women, ≥18 years of age, were recruited from 3 Ohio Appalachian counties to complete a cross-sectional survey. Sociodemographic and smoking-related information was collected by face-to-face interview. A description of women’s time (ie, spends time with) and advice (ie, gets support and advice) social network ties were obtained. An egocentric social network analysis was completed, according to the woman’s smoking status. Results Of the 408 women enrolled, 20.1% were current smokers. Time networks were larger (p < .001), more dense (p < .001), and more redundant (p < .001) than advice networks. Current smokers had a greater proportion of smoking ties in their networks compared to non-smokers (p < .001). Daily face-to-face contact with non-smoking ties was greater in time compared to advice networks (p < .001). Current smokers in advice networks tended to have less daily contact with non-smoking ties than non-smokers (p = .06). Conclusions Differences existed in characteristics of time versus advice egocentric networks. Smoking status was associated with these differences. Results will assist with future development of a network-based smoking cessation intervention.

A social-contextual investigation of smoking among rural women: multi-level factors associated with smoking status and considerations for cessation

“…As others have noted 20 , social network characteristics (ie percentage of social ties who smoke, homophily on smoking status within the network) also emerge as critical factors associated with smoking status for women residing in Appalachia. In this population, whereas non-smoking women’s social networks tend to be populated by other non-smokers, smoking women have a mixture of smoking and non-smoking network contacts 31 . Consequently, women embedded within social networks consisting of an increasing percentage of smokers are thereby more likely to be current smokers.…”

“…This two-phase recruitment process continued until 400 women were enrolled (the recruitment goal based on power calculations detailed elsewhere 31 ).…”

Place, Power, and Premature Mortality: A Rapid Scoping Review on the Health of Women in Appalachia

“…Overall, articles focused on cancer disparities (49.4%) with a particular focus on cervical cancer (27.2%). 26 -46 Many of the remaining articles focused on cancer-related risk factors, such as Human Papillomavirus (HPV; 16.0%), 41,47 -54 smoking (16.0%), 55 -64 or prenatal or gynecologic care (23.5%). 60 -62,64 -80 See Figure 2 for a summary of the reviewed health topics divided by decade of publication; these topics are not mutually exclusive, as 1 article could discuss multiple health topics.…”

Depression, smoking, and ego-centric social network characteristics in Ohio Appalachian women.

“…To identify network alters (i.e., ties), each participant was asked, “With whom do you spend the most time in daily activities? List up to nine people with whom you spend the most time on a normal day.” The ego also was asked to report the following information about the alter: (1) first name; (2) smoking status (non-smoker or current smoker); (3) age (younger, older or same as ego); (4) education (more, less or same as ego); (5) current romantic or intimate partner (yes/no); and (6) which nominated alters knew each other (Thomson, in press). InFlow® software (Orgnet.com, 2009) was used to calculate structural statistics for each ego that included: absolute size, ego network density, effective size, EI ratio for smoking status, and percentage of smoking alters.…”