Doherty Irene A, Schoenbach Victor J, Adimora Adaora A
Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7030, USA.
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2009 Sep 1;52(1):114-20. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0b013e3181ab5e10.
Heterosexually transmitted HIV infection rates are disproportionately high among African Americans. HIV transmission is influenced by sexual network characteristics, including sexual partnership mixing patterns among subpopulations with different prevalences of infection.
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of previously collected data from a North Carolina population-based case-control study. Respondents were heterosexual black men and women who either had recently reported heterosexually transmitted HIV infection (cases) or were randomly selected from the general population (controls).
Respondents reported their own and their 3 most recent sex partners' education and involvement in illicit drug use, concurrent sex partners, and incarceration. We examined sexual mixing patterns by comparing the characteristics and behaviors of respondents reported for themselves with those they reported for their partners. We estimated Newman assortativity coefficient (-1.0 to 1.0) as an aggregate quantitative assessment of mixing patterns.
Across the 4 strata (male and female cases, male and female controls), mixing was assortative (0.31-0.45) with respect to illicit drug use and minimally assortative with respect to having concurrent partners (0.14-0.22). Mixing patterns for incarceration were assortative for men (0.18 and 0.41) but not women (0.07 and 0.08). Mixing with respect to education was assortative primarily for male controls (0.33).
These sexual partnership patterns, driven in part by the social and economic context of life for African Americans, likely contribute to the heterosexually transmitted HIV epidemic.
非裔美国人中通过异性传播的艾滋病毒感染率高得不成比例。艾滋病毒传播受性网络特征影响，包括不同感染率亚人群之间的性伴侣混合模式。
我们对北卡罗来纳州一项基于人群的病例对照研究中先前收集的数据进行了横断面分析。受访者为异性恋黑人男性和女性，他们要么最近报告了异性传播的艾滋病毒感染（病例），要么是从普通人群中随机选取的（对照）。
受访者报告了自己以及他们最近的3个性伴侣的教育程度、是否涉及非法药物使用、同时拥有的性伴侣数量以及是否入狱。我们通过比较受访者报告的自身特征和行为与其报告的伴侣的特征和行为，来研究性混合模式。我们估计纽曼 assortativity 系数（-1.0至1.0）作为混合模式的总体定量评估。
在4个分层（男性和女性病例、男性和女性对照）中，在非法药物使用方面混合是同类相聚的（0.31 - 0.45），在拥有同时性伴侣方面混合程度最低（0.14 - 0.22）。入狱情况的混合模式对男性是同类相聚的（0.18和0.41），但对女性不是（0.07和0.08）。在教育程度方面的混合主要对男性对照是同类相聚的（0.33）。
这些性伴侣模式部分由非裔美国人的社会和经济生活背景驱动，可能导致了异性传播的艾滋病毒流行。
