Characteristics Of Sexual Behavioral Networks And Drug Use Networks In People With HIV Infections In Lancang County, Yunnan

BackgroundHIV infection in China continues to increase, sexual and drug abuse as the main means of transmission now. Traditional epidemiological research on AIDS is based on individual property characteristics and behavior without taking into account the interaction between individuals contribute to the spread of disease, but AIDS is a typical spread through contact between individuals of disease. So in recent years, researchers have become increasingly concerned about the level of sexually transmitted diseases in the group's social network research. Since the 1985 the first study on AIDS using social network analysis techniques, particularly in the last 10 years, a large number of studies started to use this new technology to help understand the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, mechanisms and control and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. China's current data on the study of the HIV-infections'sexual partners and drug use peer network is still blank.Objectives1. To understand the Characteristics of sexual behavioral networks and drug use networks in people with HIV infections in Lancang County, Yunnan province;2. To infer the local sexual partners and drug use peer networks of HIV affect the HIV epidemic and to provide important clues for taking a targeted interventions to prevent the second generation HIV transmission.MethodsThe survey site is Lancang County, Yunnan. According to the contact information from HIV database and subjects provided, stuff of Lancang County CDC contacted and notified the respondents to enquire the survey and accepted investigation and blood tests. For respondents who do not want to CDC or live too far away from the county cannot find the investigation team collaborated township hospital preventive care workers, village doctors to investigate households. The survey use quantitative method with questionnaire tool. General description of the results of the study, characteristics of the network [including the number of survey (network size), the density of the network behavior (network density), HIV transmission capacity of the network (network centrality), the survey mode of behavior (peer interaction similarity) and the main factors influencing the structure of networks (correlation matrix), etc.]. Through Key player and Sub-group analysis, a number of people or group will be point out, they play important role in HIV epidemic and also in HIV prevention and control, so you can select them to disseminate information or carry out measures, or by blocking the actions of these people to control the AIDS epidemic through them.Results1. This study recruited 417 HIV-positive infection drug use peer and their sexual partners, collected 151 serum samples. The density of two networks are very low, respectively,0.18,0.08; network structure is a loose network of weak spread of AIDS, the average number of the objects only can be mastered were 0.921,0.293, and only 0.07,0.326 objects were to act as an intermediary in the networks; HIV infected persons showed heterogeneity and random on the selection of the HIV infection status of sexual partners and drug use peers, that will increase the probability of HIV transmission, Q values were-0.13,-0.03.2. The structure of sexual partners network of HIV-infected persons were significantly correlated to the age, marital status, nationality, education level and HIV infection status of network members, the correlation value were respectively 0.008,0.02,0.01,0.008,0.008, all of P value were below 0.05; The structure of drug use peer network of HIV-infected persons were significantly correlated to the gender, ethnicity, education level and transmission mode, the correlation value were respectively 0.012,0.009,0.009,0.006, all of P value were below 0.05.3. Through the analysis of the cohesive sub-groups, the results showed that the concentration of the minimum size of 3 groups were 62 in sexual partners network,17 in drug use peer network; Through the analysis of key player, some members of more access to information were found; In a cohesive sub-group with 57 people, the new infection proportion was 7.0%(4/57), suggesting HIV epidemic were limited in small groups, not widespread, but the risk of HIV epidemic still exist, the new infection proportion in sexual partners network were 3.9%(5/128), this is consistent with the situation of local sexually transmitted infections increasing year by year.Conclusion1. The capacity of the spread of AIDS two networks are weaker. Members of the network's demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, education) and HIV infection status are associated with the formation of network structure.2. The network density and the capacity of spread of AIDS of sexual partner network are higher than these of drug use peer network. However, drug peer network spread HIV faster than the sexual partner network.3. HIV epidemic of Langcang were limited in small groups, not widespread, but the risk of HIV epidemic through sex intercourse still exist.4. A number of subjects and the cohesion of small groups were found in the sexual partners and drug use peer networks of HIV-infected persons, they could-control more resources or dominate more information than other isolated subjects, they also will play an important role in network formation and resources dissemination, carrying out HIV prevention interventions.