Aditya Khanna, PhD

Aditya Khanna, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health

“Social Network Dynamics of Tobacco Smoking and Alcohol Use among Persons Involved with the Criminal Legal System”

This talk will describe an ongoing modeling effort aimed at understanding the impact of incarceration on smoking and alcohol use disorder within the social networks of persons involved with the correctional system (PCLS) in Rhode Island. PCLS are known to smoke tobacco and use alcohol at higher rates than the general population, and interventions to address either behavior during incarceration have shown limited efficacy. There is also evidence suggesting that the stress associated with incarceration may be shared among close friends or confidants of PCLS. Social processes, such as social influence, homophily, and contagion, may contribute to the clustering of tobacco smoking and alcohol use within PCLS networks. Additionally, social support offered through these networks can help facilitate biobehavioral health interventions. As such, the social networks of PCLS represent a crucial avenue for addressing the growing syndemic of incarceration, tobacco smoking, and alcohol use. However, empirical data on the magnitude of both behaviors within PCLS networks is limited, and further research is needed to explore how these networks can help channel prevention interventions. This study employs modeling to assess the synergistic effects of incarceration-associated tobacco smoking and alcohol use among PCLS and the social network dynamics related to both behaviors. The simulated data generated from this study will serve to motivate future empirical and policy work in this area.

This study is supported by P20 GM 130 414 (PI Monti)

About Dr. Khanna

Dr. Aditya Khanna is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Brown University School of Public Health and serves as Core Faculty at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS). As a computational social scientist and public health modeler, he uses social network analysis, agent-based modeling, and predictive analytics to inform policy initiatives aimed at achieving health equity. Dr. Khanna’s work primarily focuses on mitigating psychosocial (e.g., substance use) and structural (e.g., incarceration) barriers to healthcare, particularly in the areas of HIV/STI prevention and management, addiction treatment, and select chronic diseases (e.g., breast cancer). He has received support as a Principal Investigator or Multiple Principal Investigator from NIDA and NCI, as a Co-Investigator from NIAID and NIMH, and as a Project Leader in the NIGMS-supported Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation (CADRE) at Brown University.