Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jun;99(6):1002-8.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.140327. Epub 2009 Apr 16.

Structural and social contexts of HIV risk Among African Americans

Samuel R Friedman  1 , Hannah L F Cooper, Andrew H Osborne
Affiliations

Structural and social contexts of HIV risk Among African Americans

Samuel R Friedman et al. Am J Public Health. 2009 Jun.

Erratum in

  • Am J Public Health. 2009 Aug;99(8):1352

Abstract

HIV continues to be transmitted at unacceptably high rates among African Americans, and most HIV-prevention interventions have focused on behavioral change. To theorize additional approaches to HIV prevention among African Americans, we discuss how sexual networks and drug-injection networks are as important as behavior for HIV transmission. We also describe how higher-order social structures and processes, such as residential racial segregation and racialized policing, may help shape risk networks and behaviors. We then discuss 3 themes in African American culture-survival, propriety, and struggle-that also help shape networks and behaviors. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of how these perspectives might help reduce HIV transmission among African Americans.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Factors in a potential HIV transmission event.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The contexts of sexual and drug-injecting partnerships. Note. Circles represent people, solid lines represent shared sexual or injection behaviors, dotted lines represent social influence and normative communication, and dashed lines represent levels of analysis.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Racialized social structures and processes as a context for HIV-relevant cultural themes, subcultures, networks, and behaviors among African Americans.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Chan DJ. Fatal attraction: sex, sexually transmitted infections and HIV-1. Int J STD AIDS 2006;17:643–651 - PubMed
    1. Berman SM, Cohen MS. STD treatment: how can it improve HIV prevention in the South? Sex Transm Dis 2006;33:S50–S57 - PubMed
    1. Quinn T. Association of sexually transmitted diseases and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus: biological cofactors and markers of behavioural interventions. Int J STD AIDS 1996;7(suppl 2):17–24 - PubMed
    1. Fleming DT, Wasserheit JN. From epidemiological synergy to public health policy and practice: the contribution of other sexually transmitted diseases to sexual transmission of HIV infection. Sex Transm Infect 1999;75:3–17 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coombs RW, Reichelderfer PS, Landay AL. Recent observations on HIV type-1 infection in the genital tract of men and women. AIDS 2003;17:455–480 - PubMed

Publication types