The Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project

This paper presents details of the design and implementation of the Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project (NSNHP), a large, mixed-methods project funded by the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). By redressing fundamental problems in conventional survey network data collection methods, the project is aimed at improving inferences concerning the association between social network structures and processes and health behaviors and outcomes. Fielded in collaboration with an ongoing demographic and health surveillance system in rural Senegal, the NSNHP includes qualitative data concerning the dimensions of social association and health ideologies and behaviors in the study zone, two panels of a new social network survey, and several supplementary and affiliated data sets. • Longitudinal social network survey linked to pre-existing surveillance data; • Addresses fundamental methodological constraints in previous social network data; • Enables social network analyses of health beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes.