BMJ  2004;329:184-185 (24 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.184

Editorial

Social networks and collateral health effects

Have been ignored in medical care and clinical trials, but need to be studied

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Since a patient or a clinical trial participant is connected to other people through social network ties, medical interventions delivered to a patient, quite apart from their health effects in that person, may have unintended health effects in others to whom he is connected. The cumulative impact of an intervention is therefore the sum of the direct health outcomes in the patient plus the collateral health outcomes in others (figure). These effects, in both the patient and in their social contacts, might be positive or negative. Doctors, trialists, patients, or policy makers might see reason to take them into account when choosing treatment or evaluating benefit.

View larger version (18K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Collateral health effects of medical care in social networks. In the conventional perspective on medical care, the benefits and costs of health care are judged by the way in which they help to achieve a direct, intended outcome in a patient. However, . . . [Full text of this article]

 

Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 (christakis@hcp.med.harvard.edu)

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Collateral health effects may be both positive or negative

Sanjay D Furtado
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2004 [Full text]