Blog: Social capital mediates knowledge gaps in informing sexual and reproductive health behaviors across Africa

 
Background

Advancing sexual and reproductive health is essential for promoting human rights and women's empowerment and combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A large body of literature across the social sciences emphasizes the importance of social capital, generated through the strength of social networks, for shaping health behaviours. However, large-scale measurement of social capital and social networks remains elusive, especially in the context of low-income countries.

Our works delves into the role of social capital dynamics, and in particular social connectedness across communities as measured through Facebook friendship links (with Social Connectedness Index), in shaping knowledge diffusion and behavior related to sexual and reproductive health in 495 regions across 33 countries in Africa.


Intriguing Aspects                                                  

We look at edges where our units of observation are differences in health outcomes between regions, not their absolute levels.

Research Question

Are online friendship links a reliable proxy for social capital?​

Can the social connectedness of two regions explain differences in their health outcomes?


Methodology

Regress average Social Connectedness Index (SCI) on trust measures from Afrobarometer on a regional level (n = 395 regions)​.

Regress regional differences in health outcomes on social conn
ectedness between regions (n = 122,760 regional ties)​.


Results

Our findings demonstrate that SCI robustly serves as a promising proxy for social capital in Africa​, as such regions with higher levels of social connectedness are more similar in their knowledge about contraception and HIV testing, as well as their adoption of these behaviours.

We further observe that the mediating role of social connectedness becomes stronger when the knowledge gaps between regions are larger. In other words, regions are more similar in behaviours, despite knowledge gaps, when they are socially connected.

These insights carry significant policy implications, especially for the design and targeting of public health campaigns. We highlight that social connectedness can serve both as a driver and a roadblock in behavior formation, underscoring the importance of understanding its influence on health-related outcomes.


Limitation 

  • Due to coarse granularity, most friendship links are within-region -> SCI just captures longest-ranging friendship ties​.
  • Selection bias in Facebook user base limits population inference​
  • Complex link of Facebook penetration and social connectedness


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