Abstract

MARQUES SANCHEZ, Pilar et al. Health system sustainability from a network perspective: a proposal to optimize healthy habits and social support. Rev. Esp. Salud Publica [online]. 2013, vol.87, n.4, pp.307-315. ISSN 2173-9110.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1135-57272013000400002.

The search of new health management formulas focused to give wide services is one of the priorities of our present health policies. Those formulas examine the optimization of the links between the main actors involved in public health, ie, users, professionals, local socio-political and corporate agents. This paper is aimed to introduce the Social Network Analysis as a method for analyzing, measuring and interpreting those connections. The knowledge of people's relationships (what is called social networks) in the field of public health is becoming increasingly important at an international level. In fact, countries such as UK, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and U.S. are looking formulas to apply this knowledge to their health departments. With this work we show the utility of the ARS on topics related to sustainability of the health system, particularly those related with health habits and social support, topics included in the 2020 health strategies that underline the importance of the collaborative aspects in networks.

Keywords : Social networking; Public health; Health policy; Social support; Epidemiology; Sustainable development.

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