Project
Social Networks and Health Inequalities
Social Networks and Health Inequalities - Research Network
Social inequalities between people are deeply connected to health. Those with lower socio-economic status are more likely to become sick and they die earlier than those with higher socio-economic status. This project aims at examining the factors responsible for turning social inequalities into health inequalities.
Background and Objective
Social Epidemiology and the Sociology of Health show clear evidence for a close connection between socio-economic status and health. People with lower socio-economic status are more likely to become sick and they die earlier than those with higher socio-economic status.
Until now, there is now general and uncontested theoretical explanation for the causes of these health inequalities, but social relations and social support seem to be an important factor. Yet, research only rarely accounts for the entirety of social relations, their structure and the effective social and socio-psychological mechanisms.
Social network research, which has become popular in anglo-american health research, may be able to address the importance of social relation in the reproduction of health inequalities.
In the research network "Social Networks and Health Inequalities", which is funded by German Research Foundation, researchers from different disciplines (sociology, psychology, public health et al.) and with different methodological background (quantitative and qualitative) come together. Their aim is to communicate the social network perspective to German-speaking health researchers and to use this perspective for driving forward scientific explanations for health inequalities.
A special focus of the project part at Thünen Institute will be on regional health inequalities, especially regarding possible differences between structure and function of social networks in rural and non-rural areas.
Approach
Research Network; multi-method approach (literature research, quantitative and qualitative methods of social network research)
Our Research Questions
(1) Do differences in social status influence composition of social networks of interpersonal relations?
(2) Are differences in social status, i.e. in vertical dimensions of social inequalities such as education, occupation and income, associated wit different network influence and selection mechanisms regarding health behaviors?
(3) Do network effects cause different health consequences depending on social status?
(4) Do social networks have different effects on individual health behaviors in distinctive phases of life?
(5) How do social networks change depending on social status when age related health constraints occur?
(6) Which health consequences do network changes in old age have?
(7) Which differences of structures and function of social networks do we find along the lines of gender, ethnicity and regional disparities - especially between rural and non-rural areas?
Results
Members of SoNeHI have presented results of their research at numerous national and international conferences. In workshops, theories and methods of network research have been taught, most recently in 2019 at the Joint Annual Meeting of the German Society for Medical Sociology (DGMS) and the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention (DGSMP).
SoNeHI has resulted in an edited volume that summarizes the current state of research on the role of network research in the study of health inequalities and identifies research desiderata and ideas for follow-up studies (Klärner et al. 2020).
An important result of the joint work on the anthology is the bringing together of the different approaches to social relations, social capital and social networks in health research and their visualization in a theory model.
Thünen-Contact
Involved Thünen-Partners
Involved external Thünen-Partners
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Universität zu Köln
(Köln, Deutschland) -
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
(Hamburg, Deutschland) -
Technische Universität Dresden
(Dresden, Tharandt, Deutschland) -
Medical School Berlin
(Berlin, Deutschland) - Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung
(Nürnberg, Deutschland) -
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
(Halle (Saale), Deutschland) - Technische Universität Chemnitz
(Chemnitz, Deutschland) - Institut für Medizinische Psychologie und Medizinische Soziologie
(Rostock, Deutschland) -
Universität Rostock
(Rostock, Deutschland)
Funding Body
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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
(national, öffentlich)
Duration
1.2016 - 12.2021
More Information
Project funding number: KL 2960/1-1
Project status:
finished
Publications to the project
- 0
Adebahr P, Keim-Klärner S, Knabe A, Klärner A (2023) "Usually, I do not quarrel" - What type of ties do we find when we ask about conflicts using a name-generator approach? Field Methods: Online First, Dec 2023, DOI:10.1177/1525822X231220596
- 1
Adebahr P, Keim-Klärner S, Klärner A, Knabe A (2023) Die Idealtypen spannungsgeladener Verbindungen. In: Meine Schwiegermutter macht mich krank : Eine Analyse spannungsgeladener Beziehungsaspekte und Gesundheit. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp 61-90, DOI:10.1007/978-3-658-42296-7_4
- 2
Keim-Klärner S, Adebahr P, Brandt S, Gamper M, Klärner A, Knabe A, Kupfer A, Müller B, Reis O, Vonneilich N, Ganser MA, de Bruyn C, Lippe H von der (2023) Social inequality, social networks, and health: a scoping review of research on health inequalities from a social network perspective. Int J Equity Health 22:74, DOI:10.1186/s12939-023-01876-9
- 3
Reis O, Adebahr P, Brandt S, Ellwardt L, Gamper M, Hoffmann L, Keim-Klärner S, Klärner A, Knabe A, Krug G, Kupfer A, Lois D, Mlinaric M, Moor I, Müller B, Niehaus M, Reims N, Richter M, Seidel J, Lippe H von der, et al (2022) Desiderata: Social networks and health inequalities: which questions remain open? In: Klärner A, Gamper M, Keim-Klärner S, Moor I, Lippe H von der, Vonneilich N (eds) Social networks and health inequalities : a new perspective for research. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp 325-343, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-97722-1_17
- 4
Gamper M, Seidel J, Kupfer A, Keim-Klärner S, Klärner A (2022) Gender and health inequalities: social networks in the context of health and health behavior. In: Klärner A, Gamper M, Keim-Klärner S, Moor I, Lippe H von der, Vonneilich N (eds) Social networks and health inequalities : a new perspective for research. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp 245-272, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-97722-1_14