Concurrent partnerships and HIV prevalence disparities by race: linking science and public health practice.
Concurrent sexual partnerships may help to explain the disproportionately high prevalence of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among African Americans. The persistence of such disparities would also require strong assortative mixing by race. We examined descriptive evidence from 4 nationally representative US surveys and found consistent support for both elements of this hypothesis. Using a data-driven network simulation model, we found that the levels of concurrency and assortative mixing observed produced a 2.6-fold racial disparity in the epidemic potential among young African American adults.
Departments of Sociology and Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. morrism@u.washington.edu
Martina
M
Morris
Ann E
AE
Kurth
Deven T
DT
Hamilton
James
J
Moody
Steve
S
Wakefield
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000635:transmission; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000821:virology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult