A Network-Grounded Approach: Reconstructing the Complete Network of Healthy Lifestyles in an Italian Community

This paper presents the initial findings of the Italian PRIN HEALING Project, which investigates the role of social networks in shaping health-risk behaviours and lifestyles within a small municipality in the Lombardy Region of Northern Italy (about 1500 inhabitants). While existing literature highlights both structural factors (such as education and occupation) and relational factors (family and peer networks) as determinants of health, this study seeks to deepen understanding of how these factors interact and collectively influence health-risk behaviours. Structural factors are relatively static over an individual's life course, whereas social networks are more dynamic, with relationships such as friendships and acquaintanceships shifting across occupational and educational boundaries.

Key research questions include the clustering of health-risk behaviours among interconnected individuals, the comparative impact of structural and social networks on unhealthy lifestyles, and the dynamics of habit transmission within these networks. A clearer understanding of the relationship between stable structural factors and fluid relational dynamics can help enhance public health interventions by identifying influential individuals or communities that spread unhealthy practices.

This research is innovative in its approach to mapping the complete social network (not only egocentric) within a local community to examine health-risk behaviours—an unprecedented method in Italy. Internationally, the Framingham Heart Study offers a similar socio-epidemiological model (Christakis & Fowler, 2013).

"Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combined a quantitative survey of approximately 900 inhabitants, gathering data on socio-demographic characteristics, health behaviours, and social ties, by mean of face to face standard interviews, and, additionally, 48 qualitative interviews to refine the emerging social profiles. These in-depth interviews explored the dynamics behind healthy and unhealthy behaviours, focusing on specific cases such as individuals with high socioeconomic status who engage in unhealthy lifestyles, lower-status individuals displaying healthy behaviours, as well as those occupying central, bridging, or isolated positions within the network.