Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program

Methods used to select opinion leaders for informal behavior change interventions vary, affecting the role they adopt and the outcomes of interventions. The development of successful identification methods requires evidence that these methods achieve their aims. This study explored whether the “whol...

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Main Authors:	Holliday, Jo, Audrey, Suzanne, Campbell, Rona, Moore, Laurence
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Routledge 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4898141/

id	pubmed-4898141
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-48981412016-06-20 Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program Holliday, Jo Audrey, Suzanne Campbell, Rona Moore, Laurence Articles Methods used to select opinion leaders for informal behavior change interventions vary, affecting the role they adopt and the outcomes of interventions. The development of successful identification methods requires evidence that these methods achieve their aims. This study explored whether the “whole community” nomination process used in the ASSIST smoking prevention program successfully identified “peer supporters” who were well placed within their school social networks to diffuse an antismoking message to their peers. Data were collected in the United Kingdom during A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial. Behavioral data were provided at baseline and post intervention by all students. Social network data were provided post intervention by students in four control and six intervention schools. Centrality measures calculated using UCINET demonstrate that the ASSIST nomination process successfully identified peer supporters who were more socially connected than others in their year and who had social connections across the entire year group including the program’s target group. The results indicate that three simple questions can identify individuals who are held in high esteem by their year group and who also have the interpersonal networks required of opinion leaders to successfully disseminate smoke-free messages through their social networks. This approach could be used in other informal health promotion initiatives. Routledge 2016-08-02 2015-12-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4898141/ /pubmed/26699125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2015.1020264 Text en © Jo Holliday, Suzanne Audrey, Rona Campbell, and Laurence Moore This is an Open Access article. Noncommercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Holliday, Jo Audrey, Suzanne Campbell, Rona Moore, Laurence
spellingShingle	Holliday, Jo Audrey, Suzanne Campbell, Rona Moore, Laurence Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
author_facet	Holliday, Jo Audrey, Suzanne Campbell, Rona Moore, Laurence
author_sort	Holliday, Jo
title	Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
title_short	Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
title_full	Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
title_fullStr	Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
title_full_unstemmed	Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program
title_sort	identifying well-connected opinion leaders for informal health promotion: the example of the assist smoking prevention program
description	Methods used to select opinion leaders for informal behavior change interventions vary, affecting the role they adopt and the outcomes of interventions. The development of successful identification methods requires evidence that these methods achieve their aims. This study explored whether the “whole community” nomination process used in the ASSIST smoking prevention program successfully identified “peer supporters” who were well placed within their school social networks to diffuse an antismoking message to their peers. Data were collected in the United Kingdom during A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial. Behavioral data were provided at baseline and post intervention by all students. Social network data were provided post intervention by students in four control and six intervention schools. Centrality measures calculated using UCINET demonstrate that the ASSIST nomination process successfully identified peer supporters who were more socially connected than others in their year and who had social connections across the entire year group including the program’s target group. The results indicate that three simple questions can identify individuals who are held in high esteem by their year group and who also have the interpersonal networks required of opinion leaders to successfully disseminate smoke-free messages through their social networks. This approach could be used in other informal health promotion initiatives.
publisher	Routledge
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4898141/
_version_	1613591080170684416

Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program

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