Citation

O'Halloran SA, Hayward J, Valdivia Cabrera M, Felmingham T, Fraser P, Needham C, Poorter J, Creighton D, Johnstone M, Nichols M, Allender S. BMC Public Health 2024; 24(1): e847.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12889-024-18354-8

PMID

38504205

Abstract

BACKGROUND: System dynamics approaches, including group model building (GMB) and causal loop diagrams (CLDs), can be used to document complex public health problems from a community perspective. This paper aims to apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) methods to combine multiple CLDs created by local communities into a summary CLD, to identify common drivers of the health and wellbeing of children and young people.

METHODS: Thirteen community CLDs regarding children and young people health and wellbeing were merged into one diagram involving three steps: (1) combining variable names; (2) CLD merging, where multiple CLDs were combined into one CLD with a set of unique variables and connections; (3) paring, where the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to generate a cut-point to reduce the number of variables and connections and to rank the overall importance of each variable in the merged CLD.

RESULTS: Combining variable names resulted in 290 variables across the 13 CLDS. A total of 1,042 causal links were identified in the merged CLD. The DEMATEL analysis of the merged CLD identified 23 common variables with a net importance between 1.0 and 4.5 R + C values and 57 causal links. The variables with the highest net importance were 'mental health' and 'social connection & support' classified as high net receivers of influence within the system.

CONCLUSIONS: Combining large CLDs into a simple diagram represents a generalisable model of the drivers of complex health problems.

Language: en

Keywords

Community; Health; Local government; Social network analysis; Systems thinking