Diffusion of treatment in social networks and mass drug administration
Authors
Chami, GF
Kontoleon, A
Bulte, E
Fenwick, A
Kabatereine, NB
Tukahebwa, EM
Dunne, D
Publication Date
2017-12-05Journal Title
Nature Communications
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Springer Nature
Volume
8
Number
1929
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Chami, G., Kontoleon, A., Bulte, E., Fenwick, A., Kabatereine, N., Tukahebwa, E., & Dunne, D. (2017). Diffusion of treatment in social networks and mass drug administration. Nature Communications, 8 (1929) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01499-z
Abstract
Information, behaviours, and technologies spread when people interact. Understanding these interactions is critical for achieving the greatest diffusion of public interventions. Yet, little is known about the performance of starting points (seed nodes) for diffusion. We track routine mass drug administration—the large-scale distribution of deworming drugs—in Uganda. We collect friendship networks, socioeconomic factors, and treatment delivery outcomes for 16,357 individuals in 3,491 households of 17 rural villages. Each village has two community medicine distributors (CMDs), who are the seed nodes and responsible for administering treatments. Here we show that CMDs with tightly-knit (clustered) friendship connections achieve the greatest reach and speed of treatment coverage. Importantly, we demonstrate that clustering predicts diffusion through social networks when spreading relies on contact with seed nodes whilst centrality is unrelated to diffusion. Clustering should be considered when selecting seed nodes for large-scale treatment campaigns.
Relationships
Is supplemented by: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.26430
Sponsorship
Financially supported by the Vice Chancellor’s Fund of the University of Cambridge, the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, the Wellcome Trust (Programme grant 083931/Z/07/Z to D.W.D), and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (N.W.O. grant 452-04-333 to E.B.).
Funder references
Wellcome Trust (083931/Z/07/A)
Medical Research Council (G0900255)
Wellcome Trust (083931/Z/07/Z)
Isaac Newton Trust (1119(a))
European Commission (517733)
Isaac Newton Trust (MINUTE 1540(v))
Imperial College London
Wellcome Trust (100891/Z/13/Z)
Embargo Lift Date
2100-01-01
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01499-z
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269755
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International
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