Complex Network Dynamics in Population Health
People constantly interact with each other and their environment, and these interactions—with whom and with what they interact—are not random. Interactions at multiple levels (cellular, neurological, social, physical, environmental) shape one’s experiences and affect health and well-being. These interactions can be represented as a set of networks that feedback and influence other networks. Here we limit our scope to the complex relationship between human social networks and behavior, which frequently forms a feedback loop, and the effect of this relationship on population health outcomes. This chapter introduces traditional network analysis as it pertains to population health, explores examples of interactions between macro-level networks, and proposes future directions for network analysis
