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Social Networks of Drug Users in High-Risk Sites: Finding the Connections

AIDS and Behavior volume 6, pages 193–206 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Social network research increasingly expands our understanding of the social environment of drug users' health risks, particularly those associated with the transmission of HIV, hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted and bloodborne infectious diseases. Our study of the networks of drug users who use high-risk sites, where people gather to inject drugs and smoke crack cocaine, is designed to explore the relationships and interactions of drug users in settings in which potential risk occurs, and to assess the opportunity to create prevention linkages. This paper describes the ego-network characteristics and macro-network linkages among a sample of 293 drug users recruited through street outreach and personal drug-use network referral in Hartford, Connecticut. Characteristics of the largest connected component of the network are also described and analyzed. We discuss uses of network analyses as well as implications of network connections for peer-led AIDS prevention intervention conducted in high-risk drug-use sites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Community Research, Hartford, Connecticut, 06106

    Margaret R. Weeks, Kim Radda & Jean J. Schensul

  2. Hispanic Health Council, Hartford, Connecticut, 06106

    Scott Clair

  3. The Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, 02467

    Stephen P. Borgatti

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  1. Margaret R. Weeks
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  2. Scott Clair
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  3. Stephen P. Borgatti
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  4. Kim Radda
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  5. Jean J. Schensul
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Correspondence to Margaret R. Weeks.

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Weeks, M.R., Clair, S., Borgatti, S.P. et al. Social Networks of Drug Users in High-Risk Sites: Finding the Connections. AIDS Behav 6, 193–206 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015457400897

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