Social Network Research contribution to evaluating process in a feasibility study of a peer-led and school-based sexual health intervention (original) (raw)

Broccatelli, Chiara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1289-174X, Wang, Peng, McDaid, Lisa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7711-8723, McCann, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-1416, Simpson, Sharon Anne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6219-1768, Elliott, Lawrie, Moore, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2182-823X and Mitchell, Kirstin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601(2021) Social Network Research contribution to evaluating process in a feasibility study of a peer-led and school-based sexual health intervention.Scientific Reports, 11, 12244. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-90852-w) (PMID:34112848) (PMCID:PMC8192897)

Abstract

There is growing interest in social network-based programmes to improve health, but rigorous methods using Social Network research to evaluate the process of these interventions is less well developed. Using data from the “STis And Sexual Health” (STASH) feasibility trial of a school-based, peer-led intervention on sexual health prevention, we illustrate how network data analysis results can address key components of process evaluations for complex interventions—implementation, mechanisms of impacts, and context. STASH trained students as Peer Supporters (PS) to diffuse sexual health messages though face-to-face interactions and online Facebook (FB) groups. We applied a Multilevel Exponential Random Graph modelling approach to analyse the interdependence between offline friendship relationships and online FB ties and how these different relationships align. Our results suggest that the creation of online FB communities mirrored offline adolescent groups, demonstrating fidelity of intervention delivery. Data on informal friendship networks related to student’s individual characteristics (i.e., demographics, sexual health knowledge and adherence to norms, which were included for STASH), contributed to an understanding of the social relational ‘building’ mechanisms that sustain tie-formation. This knowledge could assist the selection of opinion leaders, improving identification of influential peers situated in optimal network positions. This work provides a novel contribution to understanding how to integrate network research with the process evaluation of a network intervention.

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Funder and Project Information

1

Complexity in health

Sharon Simpson

MC_UU_00022/1

HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

1

Complexity in health

Sharon Simpson

SPHSU16

HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

1

Relationships and health

Kirstin Mitchell

MC_UU_00022/3

HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

1

Relationships and health

Kirstin Mitchell

SPHSU18

HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

MRC SPHSU/GU Transfer Fellowships

Laurence Moore

MC_PC_13027

SHW - MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY TO TEST STASH, A PEER-LED INTERVENTION TO PREVENT AND REDUCE STI TRANSMISSION AND IMPROVE SEXUAL HEALTH IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Laurence Moore

14/182/14

SHW - MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit

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