April 2, 2009

4-6 PM

Cannon Room, HMS Quad

Speaker: Nicholas Christakis, MD PhD

Title: “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: The Spread of Obesity, Substance Use, and Happiness in Longitudinally Resolved Social Networks”

Question: How do the health-related behaviors and treatments in one person affect the health of other people?

Quantitative Method: Network analysis involving longitudinally resolved social networks.

Medical Impact: Epidemiology, obesity, smoking.

Speaker URL: http://christakis.med.harvard.edu/

Suggested Reading: N.A. Christakis and J.H. Fowler, "The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network," New England Journal of Medicine, 358(21): 2249-2258 (May 2008).

N.A. Christakis and J.H. Fowler, "The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years," New England Journal of Medicine  357(4): 370-379 (July 2007).