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Editorial
. 2004 Jul 24;329(7459):184-5.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7459.184.

Social networks and collateral health effects

Nicholas A Christakis
Editorial

Social networks and collateral health effects

Nicholas A Christakis. BMJ. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
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, since a patient is connected to others through social ties, health care delivered to one person, quite apart from its health effects on that person, may have health effects on others. The cumulative impact of the intervention is therefore a sum of the direct outcomes in the patient plus the collateral outcomes in others. These outcomes may be both positive and negative in both the patient and in his or her social contacts (for example, side effects of medication in the individual, herd immunity in social contacts). Attention to, and measurement of, the existence of unintended outcomes arising out of the embeddedness of patients in social networks can prompt a rethinking of the relative value of healthcare interventions or of the conduct of clinical trials.
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