Close Relationships and HIV Risk among Inner-city Drug Users

描述（由申请人提供）：我的职业目标是成为健康和疾病社会背景下的独立调查员，主要与边缘化群体（例如，吸毒者，少数民族，经济上处于不利地位的人）合作。在奖学金期间，我将攻读流行病学硕士学位，获取研究设计、统计分析和药物使用的社会方面的知识和经验。在此期间，我将获得的课程、培训和研究技能将为未来的研究提供坚实的理论和方法框架。在我的研究项目中，我将调查市中心非裔美国吸毒者的亲密关系与他们的HIV风险行为之间的关系。人们普遍认识到，个人的社会环境会影响影响健康结果的个人行为，而亲密的人际关系是该环境的重要组成部分。亲密关系与艾滋病毒风险特别相关，因为它是通过性交和注射毒品等亲密活动传播的。然而，虽然众所周知，这些行为增加了艾滋病毒传播的风险，但很少有研究人员研究了性行为、共用药物和其他密切关系（例如，家庭成员、朋友）的社会心理方面如何引发健康或危险的行为。为了解决这个复杂的问题，我将对居住在德克萨斯州休斯顿主要是非裔美国人社区的成年吸毒者进行研究。我将实施混合方法的研究设计，包括数据收集和分析两个不同的阶段。在研究的定性阶段，我将从20名吸毒者中引出亲密关系的叙述，以了解他们在与性伴侣、家庭成员和其他吸毒者的关系中的期望和做法。在详细的叙述分析之后，我将产生假设并选择/创建措施来检查更广泛的吸毒者亲密关系样本。在随后的定量研究阶段，我将调查150名吸毒者，收集有关他们的关系特征、心理功能、行为和社会环境（例如，角色期望、政府政策、邻里条件）的数据。统计分析将侧重于检验假设，使用多元回归和结构方程模型来调查吸毒者亲密关系与艾滋病毒风险行为之间的关系。这项研究的结果将增加我们对艾滋病毒风险、药物使用和少数民族城市居民社会关系的认识。这些信息将有助于制定艾滋病毒预防和药物治疗的创新干预战略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My career goal is to become an independent investigator in the social context of health and illness, working primarily with marginalized groups (e.g., drug users, minorities, economically 'disadvantaged' persons). During the fellowship period, I will pursue an MPH degree in epidemiology, acquiring knowledge and experience in research design, statistical analyses, and the social aspects of drug use. The coursework, training, and research skills I will acquire during this fellowship will provide a solid theoretical and methodological framework for future research. For my research project, I will investigate the association between inner-city African-American drug users' close relationships and their HIV risk behaviors. It is widely recognized that an individual's social environment influences personal behaviors that affect health outcomes, and close, interpersonal relationships are an essential component of that environment. Close relationships are especially relevant to HIV risk since it is transmitted through intimate activities such as sexual intercourse and injecting drug use. Yet while it is well known that these behaviors increase the risk of HIV transmission, few researchers have examined how the psychosocial aspects of sexual, drug-sharing and other close relationships (e.g., family members, friends) provoke healthful or risk behaviors. To address this complex issue, I will conduct research among adult drug users residing in predominantly African- American neighborhoods in Houston, Texas. I will implement a mixed-methods research design with two distinct phases of data collection and analysis. In the qualitative phase of the study, I will elicit narratives on close relationships from twenty drug users to learn more about their expectations and practices in their relations with sex partners, family members, and other drug users. After a detailed narrative analysis, I will generate hypotheses and select / create measures to examine a broader sample of drug users' close relationships. In the subsequent quantitative phase of research I will survey 150 drug users, collecting data on their relationship characteristics, psychological functioning, behaviors, and the social environment (e.g., role expectations, government policies, neighborhood conditions) in which these relationships unfold. Statistical analyses will focus on testing the hypotheses, using multivariate regression and structural equation modeling to investigate the associations between drug users' close relationships and HIV risk behaviors. The findings from this study will add to our knowledge of HIV risk, drug use, and social relations among minority, inner-city residents. Such information will be useful in developing innovative intervention strategies for HIV prevention and drug treatment.