Some data-driven reflections on priorities in AIDS network research.
Risk networks can transmit HIV or other infections; social networks can transmit social influence and thus help shape norms and behaviors. This primarily-theoretical paper starts with a review of network concepts, and then presents data from a New York network study to study patterns of sexual and injection linkages among IDUs and other drug users and nonusers, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women, other men and other women in a high-risk community and the distribution of HIV, sex at group sex events, and health intravention behaviors in this network. It then discusses how risk network microstructures might influence HIV epidemics and urban vulnerability to epidemics; what social and other forces (such as "Big Events" like wars or ecological disasters) might shape networks and their associated norms, intraventions, practices and behaviors; and how network theory and research have and may continue to contribute to developing interventions against HIV epidemics.
Friedman
Samuel R
SR
National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th floor, New York, NY 10010, USA. friedman@ndri.org
Bolyard
Melissa
M
Mateu-Gelabert
Pedro
P
Goltzman
Paula
P
Pawlowicz
Maria Pia
MP
Singh
Dhan Zunino
DZ
Touze
Graciela
G
Rossi
Diana
D
Maslow
Carey
C
Sandoval
Milagros
M
Flom
Peter L
PL
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004532:Ego; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012944:Social Support; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000208:ethnology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires