Modeling the obesity epidemic: social contagion and its implications for control

The Hiv/aids Epidemic and Its Social and Economic Implications

Can Social Contagion Help Global Health ‘Jump the Shark’?; Comment on “How to Facilitate Social Contagion?”

The instrumental use of social networks has become a central tenet of international health policy and advocacy since the Millennium project. In asking, ‘How to facilitate social contagion?’, Karl Blanchet of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine therefore reflects not only on the recent success, but also hints to growing challenges; the tactics of partnerships, alliances and platfo...

The diabetes epidemic and its implications for eye health

The world is facing an unprecedented epidemic of diabetes. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that there are 415 million adults living with diabetes worldwide. No country is immune from this epidemic: 70% of people with diabetes live in lowand middle-income countries. Type 2 diabetes accounts for over 90% of all cases. The increase in type 2 diabetes is associated with modern...

How to Facilitate Social Contagion?

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals has proven to be a real challenge. Providing evidence on cost-effective interventions did not prove to be sufficient to secure the trust of national authorities, health care providers and patients. Introducing change in a health system requires a good understanding of the relationships between the actors of the system. Social network analysis can provi...

Economic and psychological implications of the obesity epidemic.

T he medical literature, lay press, and evening news all tell us that an unprecedented number of US adults and children are becoming obese. More than half of adults and more than 20% of children report that they are overweight or obese, 1,2 and the number of obese adults increased by 61% between 1991 and 2000. 1 In our community, Olmsted County, Minnesota, we found that the self-reported preval...