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The Relationship Between Discrimination and High-Risk Social Ties by Race/Ethnicity: Examining Social Pathways of HIV Risk

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Abstract

High-risk social ties portend differences in opportunity for HIV exposures and may contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in HIV transmission. Discrimination may affect the formation of high-risk social ties and has not been explored as a possible explanation for these persistent disparities. Using data from injection and non-injection drug users, we examined the association between the number of high-risk sex and drug ties with discrimination due to race, drug use, and incarceration stratified by race/ethnicity. Negative binomial regression models were used. While blacks had significantly fewer injecting ties than Latinos and whites, blacks who reported racial discrimination compared to blacks who did not, had more sex and injecting ties. Latinos who reported drug use discrimination compared to Latinos who did not also had more sex ties. Latinos and whites who reported drug use discrimination had more injecting ties than Latinos and whites who did not. Discrimination is associated with high-risk social ties among all racial/ethnic groups. But, these data highlight different forms of discrimination within racial/ethnic group are associated with risky social ties. More research is needed to confirm these findings and further explore the association between various forms of discrimination and social ties that may help explain racial/ethnic disparities in HIV.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA 019964-01). The authors thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program for its financial support. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the START study staff and participants for their contributions.

Disclosure

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Natalie D. Crawford

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Sandro Galea, Bruce G. Link & Crystal Fuller

  3. Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Chandra L. Ford

  4. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health, Behavior, and Society, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Carl Latkin

  5. Epidemiology of Mental Disorders Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Bruce G. Link

  6. Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Natalie D. Crawford

Authors
  1. Natalie D. Crawford
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  2. Sandro Galea
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  3. Chandra L. Ford
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  4. Carl Latkin
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  5. Bruce G. Link
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  6. Crystal Fuller
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Correspondence to Natalie D. Crawford.

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Crawford, N.D., Galea, S., Ford, C.L. et al. The Relationship Between Discrimination and High-Risk Social Ties by Race/Ethnicity: Examining Social Pathways of HIV Risk. J Urban Health 91, 151–161 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-013-9806-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-013-9806-y

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