Concurrent Partnerships and HIV Prevalence Disparities by Race: Linking Science and Public Health Practice

Abstract

Concurrent sexual partnerships may help to explain the disproportionately high prevalence of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among African Americans. The persistence of such disparities would also require strong assortative mixing by race. We examined descriptive evidence from 4 nationally representative US surveys and found consistent support for both elements of this hypothesis. Using a data-driven network simulation model, we found that the levels of concurrency and assortative mixing observed produced a 2.6-fold racial disparity in the epidemic potential among young African American adults.