Modeling the Complex Dynamics between Behaviors and Environments Shaping HIV/STIs

描述（由申请人提供）：本指导研究科学家发展奖（K01）的目的是三重的。这将使我能够：1)在新的文化和环境背景下，拓宽我对吸毒者和性工作者中艾滋病毒的社会流行病学的理解；2)学习传染病计算建模的新方法；3)促进我成为加州大学圣地亚哥分校一名富有成效的美国国立卫生研究院资助的独立调查员。培训目标将通过具体的讲习班和课程、实际操作的研究项目以及由艾滋病毒传播网络、计算建模、地理信息系统和地理空间分析以及美国/墨西哥边境地区艾滋病毒社会流行病学研究等领域专家组成的培训委员会的一对一指导来实现。本研究将通过对HIV/STI传播的计算建模进行多学科研究，以构建、验证和校准反映个体行为和环境对HIV/STI影响之间复杂相互依存关系的计算机模拟模型。该项目将利用现有NIH/ nida资助的R01， DA028692-01（“墨西哥/美国边境女性性工作者（FSWs）的艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险环境的演变”，又名Proyecto Mapa de Salud， PI Kimberly Brouwer）的数据，以利用该项目所代表的基础设施和专业知识。美国/墨西哥边境正在经历一场迅速蔓延的艾滋病毒疫情，集中在吸毒者和外籍女工等高风险群体中。计算建模通常用于疾病流行病学、卫生保健能力和急诊护理中的患者流量等领域，以捕捉系统的复杂行为，但在健康相关行为和社会科学研究中采用的速度较慢。计算建模提供了独特的机会，通过检查个体在其环境中相互作用的循环关系，从而解决艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险的偶然机制

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is threefold. This will allow me to: 1) broaden my understanding of the social epidemiology of HIV among drug users and sex workers in a new cultural and environmental context, 2) learn a new methodology in computational modeling of infectious diseases, and 3) facilitate my transition to becoming a productive NIH-funded independent Investigator at the University of California San Diego. The training aims will be accomplished through a combination of specific workshops and coursework, a hands-on research project, and one-on-one mentoring with a Training Committee comprised of experts in areas of HIV-transmission networks, computational modeling, GIS and geospatial analysis, and HIV social epidemiology research in the US/Mexico border regions. This research will be accomplished by conducting multidisciplinary studies on the computational modeling of HIV/STI transmission to construct, validate, and calibrate a computer simulation model reflecting the complex interdependences between individual behavior and environmental influence on HIV/STI. This project will leverage data from an existing NIH/NIDA-funded R01, DA028692-01 ("Evolving HIV/STI risk environments of female sex workers (FSWs) on the Mexico/US border" aka Proyecto Mapa de Salud, PI Kimberly Brouwer) in order to capitalize on the infrastructure and expertise represented by that project. The US/Mexico border is experiencing a burgeoning HIV epidemic, concentrated among high-risk groups such as drug users and FSWs. Computational modeling has been routinely used in areas such as disease epidemiology, health care capacity, and patient flows in emergency care to capture the complex behavior of system but have been slower to be adopted in health-related behavioral and social science research. Computational modeling offers the unique opportunity to address the casual mechanism of HIV/STI risk by examining cyclic relationship of individuals interacting within their environment and in turn their environment shaping risk-related behaviors. The proposed research will allow me to apply newly acquired skills in computational modeling to develop a robust simulation of HIV/STI transmission as we change the context of risks including factors measured at the behavioral, social, physical, and geographical level. This model will be validated and calibrated with extant data sampled from a particularly high-risk population in Tijuana where HIV prevalence among women participating in sex work is 21%. Findings from this research will enhance scientific understanding on which environmental determinants affect population-levels of HIV/STI transmission and could have major implications for the types of evidence that are used to make policy decision and public health interventions. Further, developing skills in computational modeling will uniquely position me as only one of a handful of quantitative methodological researchers in the field of drug abuse possessing such skills, and the only one in the Division of Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego.