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Grant Details

Grant Number: 5R01CA157577-06 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator: Valente, Thomas
Organization: University Of Southern California
Project Title: The Global Diffusion of Tobacco Control
Fiscal Year: 2017


Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although smoking rates have decreased in many parts of the globe, there are still an estimated 1.3 billion smokers globally, and tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. To combat the ongoing problem of tobacco use, the WHO Member States negotiated and unanimously adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which is an international treaty aimed at reducing tobacco use. About 87% of the 193 WHO member countries have ratified the FCTC (or its legal equivalent) as of April 2011. Understanding when, how, and why individual countries ratified the FCTC and subsequently enacted policies implementing the treaty obligations is a critical research question that has implications for understanding network effects, the science of diffusion of innovations, as well as prospects for enacting future international public health law. This study proposes to compile extensive network data from GLOBALink, an electronic forum for global tobacco advocacy, to construct multiple social networks that can be used to estimate network effects in a dynamic modeling framework. We study network influences on the diffusion and adoption of the FCTC and the strength of its implementation among the 193 member countries over a 9-year period. We also propose to augment the network data with an extensive database of country attributes such as total population; population distribution; size (area); income; income distribution; tobacco production; governmental form; region; spending on power, communications, and trade; existence of tobacco control NGOs; and so on. These attributes will be used to control for their possible associations with FCTC ratification and implementation to determine whether these characteristics are associated with infectivity or susceptibility to FCTC diffusion. We have also acquired data on the ratification of two other international treaties which diffused over a similar time-span. These treaties will act as "comparison treaties" in which we do not expect GLOBALink participation to be associated with their ratification. At the same time, we will acquire other inter-country network data to test whether these other networks (trade and communication) were associated with the comparison treaties and not with FCTC adoption. The final aim combines the traditional diffusion network approach with the newly developed actor-oriented MCMC approach created to address network dependencies. We have built a diffusion network stochastic actor oriented (SIENA) platform in R to test specific dynamic network influence hypotheses. This event history analysis will enable the testing of network influences over the 108 months of treaty adoption that incorporates parameters for reciprocity, transitivity, alternating k-stars, and the many other parameters built into RSIENA. These procedures enable the specification of complex network effects that dynamically consider the coevolution of networks and behavior. Finally, we will supplement our analyses with selected content analysis of messages exchanged between GLOBALink users. Our overall goal is to compile a rich dataset on the international diffusion of three treaties expected to be differentially influenced by at least 10 different networks. The significance of thi proposed research is derived from addressing an important global health topic, retrieving data of unprecedented richness and granularity, and employing a sophisticated yet new comprehensive modeling approach.



Publications

Evaluation of a Nurse-Delivered Pre-Chemotherapy Educational Intervention to Increase Knowledge and Reduce Anxiety Among Ethnically Diverse Patients.
Authors: Piombo S.E. , Miller K.A. , Alderete K. , Egan A. , Golingay S. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education, 2021 Aug; 36(4), p. 728-734.
PMID: 32002822
Related Citations

Diffusion/Contagion Processes on Social Networks.
Authors: Valente T.W. , Vega Yon G.G. .
Source: Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education, 2020 Apr; 47(2), p. 235-248.
EPub date: 2020-02-24.
PMID: 32090655
Related Citations

Smoking Diffusion through Networks of Diverse, Urban American Adolescents over the High School Period.
Authors: de la Haye K. , Shin H. , Vega Yon G.G. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Journal of health and social behavior, 2019 Sep; 60(3), p. 362-376.
PMID: 31526021
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Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.
Authors: Valente T.W. , Pitts S. , Wipfli H. , Vega Yon G.G. .
Source: Social science & medicine (1982), 2019 Feb; 222, p. 188-197.
EPub date: 2019-01-09.
PMID: 30739870
Related Citations

Coding communications across time: Documenting changes in interaction patterns across adopter categories.
Authors: Chu K.H. , Pitts S.R. , Wipfli H. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Network science (Cambridge University Press), 2017 Dec; 5(4), p. 441-460.
EPub date: 2017-10-30.
PMID: 31435481
Related Citations

Putting the network in network interventions.
Authors: Valente T.W. .
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017-09-05; 114(36), p. 9500-9501.
EPub date: 2017-08-29.
PMID: 28851836
Related Citations

An Appraisal of Social Network Theory and Analysis as Applied to Public Health: Challenges and Opportunities.
Authors: Valente T.W. , Pitts S.R. .
Source: Annual review of public health, 2017-03-20; 38, p. 103-118.
EPub date: 2016-12-15.
PMID: 27992729
Related Citations

Three Eras in Global Tobacco Control: How Global Governance Processes Influenced Online Tobacco Control Networking.
Authors: Wipfli H. , Chu K.H. , Lancaster M. , Valente T. .
Source: Global health governance : the scholarly journal for the new health security paradigm, 2016 Fall; 10(2), p. 138-150.
EPub date: 2016-10-16.
PMID: 28596813
Related Citations

Bridging, brokerage and betweenness.
Authors: Everett M.G. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Social networks, 2016 Jan; 44, p. 202-208.
EPub date: 2015-11-01.
PMID: 28239229
Related Citations

Diffusion of innovations theory applied to global tobacco control treaty ratification.
Authors: Valente T.W. , Dyal S.R. , Chu K.H. , Wipfli H. , Fujimoto K. .
Source: Social science & medicine (1982), 2015 Nov; 145, p. 89-97.
EPub date: 2015-10-13.
PMID: 26460508
Related Citations

How different countries addressed the sudden growth of e-cigarettes in an online tobacco control community.
Authors: Chu K.H. , Valente T.W. .
Source: BMJ open, 2015-05-21; 5(5), p. e007654.
EPub date: 2015-05-21.
PMID: 25998038
Related Citations

A Systematic Review of Loneliness and Smoking: Small Effects, Big Implications.
Authors: Dyal S.R. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Substance use & misuse, 2015; 50(13), p. 1697-716.
EPub date: 2015-11-10.
PMID: 26555089
Related Citations

Network Influences on Behavior: A Summary of Tom Valente's Keynote Address at Sunbelt XXXV: The Annual Meeting of the International Network for Social Network Analysis.
Authors: Dyal S.R. .
Source: Connections (Toronto, Ont.), 2015; 35(2), p. 52-57.
PMID: 29142335
Related Citations

Using Visualizations to Explore Network Dynamics.
Authors: Chu K.H. , Wipfli H. , Valente T.W. .
Source: Journal of social structure : JOSS, 2013; 14, .
PMID: 25285051
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