Public Health Programs Can 'Rewire' Social Networks, Study Finds

Public health programs can 'rewire' social networks, study finds

An educational program intended to improve maternal and child health fundamentally altered the social fabric of the rural Honduran villages where it was implemented, a new Yale-led study finds. The findings, researchers say, have implications for interventions anywhere that seek to improve people's well-being by disseminating information or changing behaviors through social contagion.

Public health programs can ‘rewire’ social networks, Yale study finds

A maternal and child health education program implemented in rural villages in Honduras changed the communities’ social networks in ways that could be harmful or beneficial.