Gagnon J, Laumann E, Michaels S, Michael R; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 1990 Jun 20-23; 6: 298 (abstract no. F.D.867).

State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY USA

OBJECTIVES: The determination of the social characteristics of persons with a person with HIV disease in their social networks. METHODS: The multivariate analysis of data from 3 national household surveys in the United States -- the GSS 1988, the GSS 1989 and the AIDS supplement of the NHIS (for all available time periods, 1987-89) -- each of which asked respondents whether they knew someone in their social networks who had AIDS. RESULTS: The increase in the proportion of the population who knows someone with AIDS has paralleled the increase in the numbers of persons reported by official data sources on persons with AIDS. The social characteristics of persons who know persons with AIDS differ in a variety of ways from those of the general population. Members of minorities disproportionately know more persons with AIDS, as do the better educated in the white population. Persons aged 25-40 know disproportionately more persons with AIDS than do persons who are older and younger. Men and women are equally likely to know a person with AIDS even though the disease itself is disproportionately one of men. Multivariate analysis of these data by region, education, and ethnicity suggests that there are substantial differences in the distribution of social networks in which persons with AIDS are represented. In addition there is evidence that persons who know persons with AIDS have different attitudes toward and knowledge about HIV disease. CONCLUSION: The social characteristics of those with recognized persons with AIDS in their social networks is an important aspect of understanding the public response to the HIV epidemic. The concentration of persons with AIDS in limited social networks will impact the willingness of the larger population to deal with AIDS related issues, since there is evidence that knowing a person with AIDS has effects on attitudes toward AIDS and toward persons with AIDS.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Demography
• Disease Outbreaks
• Female
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Humans
• Male
• Minority Groups
• Sociology
• United States

Other ID:

• 20086790

UI: 102184813

From Meeting Abstracts