Social Neighborhoods and HIV transmission risk

• In Event: 027 - Regular Session. Social Deminsions of AIDS

Abstract

Most of one’s important relationships are developed within one’s social neighborhood, those people with whom one is most often in contact. In this paper I examine the concept of a social neighborhood and relate it to the potential for the spread of HIV. To the extent that risk partners—sex and drug injection partners—are selected from within a social neighborhood, the opportunity for widespread broadcasting of HIV is reduced. Relating this idea of social neighborhood with data on the HIV status of persons and their risk partners, I examine the potential for persons with and without HIV to propagate or restrict the spread of HIV. Longitudinal network data on 825 sex and 291 drug injection relationships shows that, in the context of HIV, those relationships most at risk for transmission of HIV tend to be focused within the social neighborhood and thus are protective in regards the wider population.

Author

• David C. Bell, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis