Call: "Online Networks and Health"

Please consider submitting an abstract to the session on “Online Networks and Health” for Sunbelt 2022, scheduled for July 12-16, 2022 in Cairns, Australia (hybrid conference).

Session organizer:  Lindsay Young, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California (lindsay.young@usc.edu)

Description: Social networks and the methods used to analyze them have captured considerable interest among clinical, epidemiological, and behavioral health researchers. Now, widespread use of online social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Dating Apps) has created new sources of digitally archived, near real-time network data with immense potential for providing insights about a wide range of health-related outcomes and processes (e.g., infectious disease transmission, health information- and care-seeking, norm formation, social support, and other peer influence processes), while also providing new opportunities for health care engagement and intervention. In this session, we seek papers that explore the relationship between online social and communication networks and health-related outcomes, behaviors, and processes. We welcome studies that feature a wide range of network analytic techniques including egocentric network analysis, stochastic network models, semantic/text network characterization, and other computational approaches for both cross-sectional and longitudinal network data. 

 Submission deadline: February 6, 2022

Please include the following required information in your proposal:

• A short descriptive title for your presentation/poster
• A brief description of your presentation/poster (max. 200 words)
• Names and contact information of all authors
• Preference for timeslot for presentation (1st, 2nd and 3rd preferences)
• Session preference
• Keywords

Feel free to contact session organizer Lindsay Young (lindsay.young@usc.edu) with any questions.