Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Social networks in minoritized communities are not peripheral to health systems; they are the primary structures through which care becomes possible amid structural inequities. This study conceptualizes social networks not simply as interpersonal connections but as critical health infrastructures that shape health experiences, including how health is understood and how communities collectively respond to inequities (Perry & Pescosolido, 2015). In these contexts, social networks serve as essential mechanisms for navigating systems that often define health in fragmented, exclusionary, or culturally misaligned ways.

The meaning of health is shaped through interactions within social networks and the health system, rather than residing solely within individuals or collectives. It is recognized, negotiated, and supported by family, peers, communities, and institutions, making it inherently relational. This study shifts from a purely behavioral focus to a meaning-centered approach, integrating relational processes across levels with social network structures, and centering communities that are often underrepresented in network-health research. Focusing on Latine, Vietnamese, and Native communities in a highly diverse urban neighborhood in Colorado, we examine how health emerges at the intersection of personal experience, shared contexts, and interactions with health systems.

This mixed-methods study combines unstructured, relational interviews with social network analysis (SNA) surveys, integrating ethnographic and survey approaches simultaneously. This ethnosurveys design captures the complexity of multilevel data, including life histories and relational contexts, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of lived experience.

Public health officials, education leaders, policymakers, and community advocates discuss and worry about outcomes of systemic structural factors or interpersonal experiences of discrimination. However, the structural mechanisms governing our closest relationships often remain unrecognized. We seek to bring focus to the impact of local social structures on meaning-making and resource mobilization, to elevate opportunities for interventions that, when enacted locally and informed by local social structures, can build solutions to population health challenges.