Guy Harling
harlingg.bsky.social
Guy Harling
@harlingg.bsky.social
Epidemiologist @uclglobalhealth.bsky.social & @ahri-news.bsky.social. Focus on data collection, social networks & health (HIV, mental health, caregiving, vaccines). Mostly in southern Africa.
Reposted by Guy Harling
New post, on how AI is coming for open source software: kucharski.substack.com/p/will-your-...
Will your favourite open source software tools soon be closed off?
Freely available software relies on credit. AI is destroying that.
kucharski.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Do you want to learn about global mental health? At @uclglobalhealth.bsky.social in London? With global experts like @thewrittenro.bsky.social and Kelly Rose-Clarke?

Here's a 2 minute video about our brand new one-year MSc, do reach out to Rochelle or Kelly learn more!

#globalhealth #mentalhealth
Global Mental Health MSc
YouTube video by UCLGlobalHealth
www.youtube.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:11 PM
I was lucky to chat with Laura Forastiere @yalesph.bsky.social recently - a v nerdy discussion of networks & interventions - and stats that are well above my paygrade

Which sent me off to read her latest methods paper on how to estimate causal effects in cRCTs using egonet contacts as controls
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Just read this new paper from Alison Comfort et al, incl @drdrtsai.bsky.social as senior author. Great evidence of clustering of knowlege (about getting your baby tested for HIV if you are living with HIV) on networks!
A new paper led by Alison Comfort and colleagues in Uganda and the US found that having social ties to people who knew when babies should be tested for HIV was linked to a person’s knowledge about early infant testing
Social networks can help spread information about infant HIV testing | Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
By Bixby Center on November 12, 2025
bixbycenter.ucsf.edu
December 19, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Another great paper using social network data from >5000 Ethiopians by @drsarahmyers.bsky.social, @danielredhead.bsky.social et al.

They show how attitudes towards IPV against women cluster socially on gender-homphilous ties. But opposite-gender ties actually predict *reverse* IPVAW attitudes
Gender-biased clustering of attitudes towards physical intimate partner violence: A social network analysis in south-central Ethiopia
Abstract. Changing social norms, shared beliefs about what is acceptable, is a key focus of global health campaigns aimed at ending intimate partner violen
academic.oup.com
December 19, 2025 at 10:41 AM
How do people negotiate discussions around vaccines with close contacts, as reported by 100 US residents around Covid

Respondents suggest ways of handling complex conversations:
- Reframing diffs of opinion as caring
- Focusing on personal experince not science
- Build from shared moral viewpoints
Difficult Health Conversations: Dilemmas That Vaccinated People in the United States Experienced When Discussing COVID-19 Vaccination with Hesitant Family Members
During the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, public health officials in the United States called upon vaccinated individuals to encourage reluctant family members to get vaccinated. Due in part to the ...
www.tandfonline.com
December 19, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Excellent marketing for this Kiss the Koala cafe. Terrible public health messaging
December 14, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Guy Harling
A handy translation guide for non-academic speakers.
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
🚨 New methods papers 🚨

I'm delighted to report we have two papers out this week that try and improve how we collect and analyse survey data

Colleagues are probably bored of me saying it, but an interview is a dyadic process & we should always consider the effect of both parties & their interaction
November 14, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Guy Harling
On Tuesday, we hosted Jane Greve (VIVE – Danish Centre for Social Science Research) for a fascinating seminar on “Family Spillovers of Dementia.” Using 20 years of Danish register data, she explored how parental dementia affects adult children’s lives.
November 6, 2025 at 2:22 PM
🚨 New paper 🚨

We have a lovely mixed-methods paper highlighting how method of data collection *strongly* affects what you find

In the context of informal caregiving for older persons in rural South Africa

Work led by Michelle Brear and Lenore Manderson
Variation in Health Status Reports: Triangulating Mixed Methods Data to Assess the Health and Wellbeing of Primary Caregivers to Older Rural South Africans - Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology
Caregivers’ health status is important, given its importance for their own wellbeing and capacity to provide quality care. While single item self-rated health questions in surveys are an efficient mea...
link.springer.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:14 PM
For anyone interested in social networks and interventions, this new book (out at the end of Nov) by Tom Valente is self-recommending and likely to be the bible for some time to come

#networks #interventions #socialnetworks
Network Interventions | Engaging Social Networks to Accelerate Diffusi
Social networks are important sources of influence on many personal, organizational, community, and societal behaviors. Network interventions (NIs) are
www.taylorfrancis.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Interesting (pre-print) protocol for a study @bristoluni.bsky.social @einsteinmededu.bsky.social & Kenya MOH & AIDS/STI Control Programmestudy to link behaviour & phylogenetics around blood-borne & sexually transmitted infections in Kenya. With the plan of modelling interventions to reduce BBI
Leveraging Injection Networks to Prevent HIV and Other Blood Borne Infections Among People Who Inject Drugs in Kenya: Design and Rationale
BackgroundHIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) are blood borne infections (BBIs) that remain a significant cause of global morbidity and mortality among people who inject drugs (PWID). UNAIDS and WHO have set go...
www.researchsquare.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Nice work by Kyla Belisario, @allan-clifton.bsky.social, James MacKillop ++ @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social showing strengths/weaknesses of limiting alters (5 vs 20) when assessing network predictors of harmful alcohol use
Validity of a Brief Egocentric Social Network Assessment in Adults with Alcohol Use Disorder: Direct Comparison of 5-Alter and 20-Alter Versions
Social network analysis offers a high-resolution framework for understanding social influences on alcohol use, but full-length assessments confer significant burden, giving rise to brief measures. How...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
October 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
@runsenchen.bsky.social ++ show in 17 schools in Guangdong that NSSI behaviour clusters on social contact networks, but only for those with few friends. Suggesting relative isolation makes friends' behaviors more influential?

X-sectional, so hard to infer contagion, but a hypothesis to test...
Understanding Social Influence of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: The Interplay of Peer Networks and Adolescent Behavior - Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) could be influenced by their friends’ NSSI and by their own social position within peer networks. However, prior research has examined these effects separa...
link.springer.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
I really liked this school-based pilot by Caroline Kuo, Cathy Matthews @samrcza.bsky.social. Collecting & showing learners what peers really think about sexual health.

Acceptable & ass'd with short-term improvements

Big question: how can such interventions build to sustained behaviour change?
Acceptability, Feasibility, and Preliminary Efficacy of Schools Championing Safe South Africa, a Social Norms Intervention to Prevent HIV Risk Behavior and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Am...
Schools Championing Safe South Africa is an intervention to prevent sexual violence perpetration and HIV/STI risk behavior among teenage boys, focusing on correcting misperceived social norms regardin...
link.springer.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I'm delighted to see colleagues @ubcpharmsci.bsky.social - led by Anuoluwapo Awotunde & Kerry Wilbur - investigating how medical & family care is networked in British Columbia.

The limited ties between these groups highlights the need for improved network collaboration
Interprofessional Care and Informal Support Networks of Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults | Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement | Cambridge Core
Interprofessional Care and Informal Support Networks of Independent Community-Dwelling Older Adults
www.doi.org
October 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Guy Harling
Want to promote transparency and clarity in network research by helping develop 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 (𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃)?

Sign up to get involved here: tinyurl.com/help-with-GR...

▪️ All career stages welcome
▪️ All fields welcome
▪️ Be compensated for your time
GRAND Recruitment
Complete this short questionnaire to help develop Guidelines for Reporting About Network Data (GRAND).
tinyurl.com
October 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Lovely detailed description by @haneuljang.bsky.social & @danielredhead.bsky.social of how knowledge & skills are differentially spread through the network of a forager village in DRC. And how this is patterned by own & contact age, kinship and relationship status
Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society
Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli
academic.oup.com
September 22, 2025 at 12:34 PM
A quick reminder: vaccine demand is socially contagious:

Georges Khalil, Stephanie Staras ++ show that parental HPV vaccination intent in Florida is closely linked to support from confidants, wider network and family

My takeaway: tell people around you if you support vaccines
www.mdpi.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:19 PM
A couple of new serious networks & stats papers with a shared last author (Laura Forstiere @yalesph.bsky.social):

1. Falco Bargagli-Stoffi ++ highlight the need to account for clustering when evaluating the impact of information/diffusion interventions, and how to do this in a principled manner
Heterogeneous treatment and spillover effects under clustered network interference
The bulk of causal inference studies rule out the presence of interference between units. However, in many real-world scenarios, units are interconnected by social, physical, or virtual ties, and the effect of the treatment can spill from one unit to other connected individuals in the network. In this paper, we develop a machine learning method that uses tree-based algorithms and a Horvitz–Thompson estimator to assess the heterogeneity of treatment and spillover effects with respect to individual, neighborhood, and network characteristics in the context of clustered networks and interference within clusters. The proposed network causal tree (NCT) algorithm has several advantages. First, it allows the investigation of the heterogeneity of the treatment effect, avoiding potential bias due to the presence of interference. Second, understanding the heterogeneity of both treatment and spillover effects can guide policymakers in scaling up interventions, designing targeting strategies, and increasing cost-effectiveness. We investigate the performance of our NCT method using a Monte Carlo simulation study and illustrate its application to assess the heterogeneous effects of information sessions on the uptake of a new weather insurance policy in rural China.
projecteuclid.org
September 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
New paper by Emily Long, @mark-glasgow.bsky.social & more: mental health support in rural Scotland linked to alters who are younger, female, egonet-central, longer-term, in frequent contact. And much less common if respondents felt stigma about their mental health
Mental health discussions among rural residents: a social network approach
Published article 9450 Rural and Remote Health
www.rrh.org.au
September 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I'm a bit late to this, but important evidence of (non) maintenance of friendship ties as US adolescents leave high school. Also open access at pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
September 9, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A quick thread of recent new (to me) research pubs:
September 5, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Do you know a "post-PhD early/mid-career researcher from Southern Africa" who would be interested in support to apply for a grant? @ahri-news.bsky.social, @aphrc.bsky.social & @wellcometrust.bsky.social are building a cohort for a 12-month programme

Intent to submit: 15 Sept; full app: 30 Sept
Empowering Early and Mid-Career African Researchers in Grantsmanship and Research Fundraising
surveys.aphrc.org
September 5, 2025 at 12:11 PM