Rethinking the African AIDS Epidemic

Half the AIDS victims in the world are in East and Southern Africa, where adult HIV sero‐prevalence was 11.4 percent by the end of 1997 and over 25 percent in two countries of Southern Africa. HIV/AIDS infection is not the result of ignorance, as nearly everyone has sufficient knowledge about AIDS and how it is transmitted. The high levels of AIDS arise from the failure of African political and religious leaders to recognize social and sexual reality. The means for containing and conquering the epidemic are already known, and could prove effective if the leadership could be induced to adopt them. The lack of individual behavioral change and of the implementation of effective government policy has roots in attitudes to death and a silence about the epidemic arising from beliefs about its nature and the timing of death. International responsibility may have to be taken before the needed effective policies are put in place.     

The African AIDS epidemic: Reflections on a research program

Sub-Saharan Africa has suffered the major impact of the AIDS epidemic, with almost 70 per cent of the world’s HIV-infected persons and almost 80 per cent of AIDS deaths. The primary source of infection has been heterosexual transmission. In the absence of a vaccine, the only protection has been behavioural change. A collaborative program between research teams of the Australian National University and three African universities spent 12 years investigating the social and behavioural context of the African epidemic with the aim of providing an understanding of the social dimension of the epidemic so that behavioural change might be accelerated. This paper provides a history of the project’s activities and summarizes its findings. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A01NG004 00005     

AIDS与人口安全

本文主要论述了AIDS对人口数量、质量、人口结构及负担系数等带来的重大影响,以期加强我国对AIDS对人口安全的影响和关注。     

Gay youth and AIDS

Gay male teenagers face considerable adversity during their "coming out" process due to the AIDS epidemic. They must decide whether to be tested for HIV-1 infection, whether to postpone sexual activity, how to select a partner, and which kinds of sexual practices to engage in. Gay youth often make such decisions based upon misinformation and faulty premises. This paper reviews what is known about gay youth and AIDS, and assesses their possible risk for HIV-1 infection. It is recommended that school and community-based health education programs be developed to teach gay and bisexual youth about safe sex. Moreover, research is needed into sociocultural variations among gay youth in order to develop appropriate and effective intervention strategies for AIDS risk reduction in this diverse population.     

HIV/AIDS and Urbanization

It is well known that levels of HIV prevalence tend to be appreciably higher inurban areas. This article considers the reasons for this and shows that within world regions that are relatively homogeneous with respect to their experience of HIV/AIDS, variation in the level of urbanization corresponds to about one‐third of variation in estimated HIV prevalence. Furthermore, for populations in the world's worst‐affected area—eastern and southern Africa—there are signs that, partly by differentially raising urban death rates and depressing urban birth rates, HIV/AIDS is slowing the pace of urbanization. Finally, in countries with very high levels of HIV infection and relatively low birth rates, such as in South Africa, the urban sector will soon constitute a “demographic sink”—with death rates exceeding birth rates.     

Marital Shopping and Epidemic AIDS

HIV risks decline sharply at age 30 for women in South Africa, long before coital frequencies or pregnancies decrease. I evaluate several prominent behavioral models of HIV, and find that these do not suggest sharply decreasing risks with age. I formulate a model of spousal search and find that “marital shopping” can generate epidemic HIV prevalence despite low transmission rates because search behavior interacts with dynamics of HIV infectiousness. The implied age-infection profile closely mimics that in South Africa, and the suggested behavior matches that reported by South Africans. Condom use in new relationships and transmission rate reductions are both found to be effective policies and, when used together, eliminate the potential of spousal search to spread HIV. In contrast, antiretroviral treatment is found to have only a minimal effect on the epidemic.     

AIDS victims and heterosexual attitudes

This study reports on the development of a Likert scale that measures attitudes toward AIDS victims (ATAV) in five phases. A total of 582 undergraduate (means age = 24.2) completed the survey forms, 249 males and 333 females. The results for Phase 1 yielded a scale with high part-whole correlations (.62-.90, p less than .001), corrected split-half reliability (.87, p less than .001), and alpha coefficients (.91, p less than .001). The following phases yielded significant correlations between the ATAV scale and attitudes toward homosexuals (.60, p less than .001), homosexual parenting (.64, p less than .001), other minority groups (.33, .37, p less than .001), capital punishment (-.27 p less than .001), and sexually liberal attitudes (.22, .37, .23, p, less than .025). Attitudes toward homosexuals are the central component in attitudes toward AIDS victims. A varimax rotated factor analysis of the ATAV yielded one primary factor accounting for 85.9% of the variance.     

Polygyny and African couple research

Fertility and family planning research has recently begun to focus on couples, rather than solely on women. High levels of polygyny in sub-Saharan Africa create two interesting problems for couple analyses. First, some men match with multiple wives in a given sample. Hence observations of a dependent variable that are a function of the responses from a polygynous man are not statistically independent. To correct for this, we propose that researchers use the method of generalized estimating equations. The second problem occurs when survey questions do not properly account for men having multiple partners. Variables constructed from such questions may contain error. Until better data are available, we propose that researchers randomly select a wife for each polygynous man to reduce the effects of this error. We illustrate these ideas by studying the determinants of couples having innovative family planning behaviors and attitudes in Niger.     

PrEP Awareness in the Context of HIV/AIDS Conspiracy Beliefs Among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino MSM in Three Urban US Cities

ABSTRACT

We examined HIV conspiracy beliefs and PrEP awareness in a convenience sample of minority MSM. Participants in three cities completed a behavioral self-assessment on sociodemographics, PrEP awareness, and HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs. HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs were more common among Black than Latino MSM (58% vs. 42%, p < .05), and among younger men than older men (age 18–29 (50%), 30–39 (22%), 40+ (28%); p < .05). PrEP awareness co-occurred with conspiracy belief less (37%) than with non-belief (63%, p < .05), persisting in multivariable regression (aOR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.38–0.71). This relationship suggests that current HIV care and prevention messaging is either inaccessible or not credible to some minority subpopulations.     

Liberation groups and life philosophy

Social liberation movements are significant arenas for cultural value growth. I discuss two forms of value growth that occur on the social liberation front-life philosophy value growth and life-style value growth. I show how life philosophy values are personal identity instilling values while life-style values are social identity instilling values. Unfortunately, within many social liberation movements, the two sorts of values often get confused with one another. I discuss some of these confusions within both the black liberation and feminist liberation movements. I also discuss some proper value growth models that work appropriately within these movements.     

中国艾滋病的流行及其有效应对

一、中国艾滋病流行的历史与现状1985年,中国发现第一例艾滋病病例;至1998年,全国31个省、市、自治区都有感染案例的报告,血液传播、性传播、母婴传播三种传播途径都有案例。目前,中国艾滋病疫情上升速度有所减缓,     

AIDS, sexuality, and sexual control

The AIDS epidemic is discussed in terms of its effect on general sexual attitudes and behavior of homosexual and bisexual men, then, in particular, on the issue of control over one's sexual behavior. Problems encountered in the formulation of the concept of sexual control are discussed along with relevant theoretical constructs. A group treatment program for homosexual and bisexual men with problems of sexual control is described, along with findings and discussions regarding the effect of such treatment on sexual behavior.     

Reference groups and family size norms

The concept of reference groups is introduced as a theoretically useful mechanism involved in diffusing collective norms and values about family size and in formation of family size ideals of individual family members. Data were gathered via self-administered questionnaires from a random sample of 140 urban and 55 rural families in the Lansing, Michigan metropolitan area. Findings show major variations by sex. Conformity to a two-child family norm in the family size ideals of wives depends on the extent to which they are exposed to this norm through reference group interaction and on the size of their families of origin. Husbands' family size ideals are influenced by size of family of origin but not by reference group interaction. In further exploring this pattern of findings, important differences emerge by controlling for educational attainment and residential location.Revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Session "Population: Fertility Behavior," Chicago, September 5–9, 1977. This research was supported by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, Project 3152, "Functioning of the Family Ecosystem in a World of Changing Energy Availability" through the Institute for Family and Child Study and the Department of Sociology. Acknowledgements are due to Shirley Foster Hartley, Nan E. Johnson, Harry Perlstadt, Harry K. Schwarzweller, and the referees of this journal, all of whom made helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Michigan State Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Article Number 8245. Requests for reprints should be sent to Daniel C. Clay, Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824.     

Skin Color and Intelligence in African Americans

The relation between skin color and intelligence was examined in a representative sample of 430 adult African Americans. A statistically significant positive correlation of 0.17 was obtained between light skin color and intelligence. It is proposed that the result supports the hypothesis that the level of intelligence in African Americans is significantly determined by the proportion of Caucasian genes.     

African widows: anthropological and historical perspectives

Variety characterizes widows' experiences around the world and in Africa south of the Sahara. This article explores the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of African widowhood, using anthropological studies in a number of African societies, including the author's research among Abaluyia of western Kenya. Some features of African widowhood are characteristic of African women's lives regardless of their marital status: their embeddedness in kinship systems and dependence on those systems for claims to productive resources, their economic self-reliance (which does not mean prosperity), strongly gendered divisions of labor, and the pervasiveness of patriarchal gender relations. Other features are specific to widowhood, including remarriage, issues of personal autonomy, and loss of status, access to productive resources and social support. Colonial and postcolonial historical transformations, including Africa's current dire economic situation and the AIDS epidemic, are considered in relation to widows' lives. An interesting question (given the theme of this edited volume) is whether a husband' s death puts African widows "on their own again," and whether, given African systems of kinship and marriage, most African women (and indeed men, too) can ever be said to be "on their own."     

云南流动人口与艾滋病扩散

人口流动既是社会经济进步的标志之一 ,也会带来一系列的社会问题。由于流动人口具有与常住人口不同的特征 ,在迁移过程中 ,他们不仅成为艾滋病的易感人群 ,同时也成为艾滋病扩散的重要媒介。这一点 ,可以从流动人口分布、流量与HIV/AIDS流行程度的时、空关系中得到清楚的印证     

Social networks and HIV/AIDS risk perceptions

Understanding the determinants of individuals' perceptions of their risk of becoming infected with HIV and their perceptions of acceptable strategies of prevention is an essential step toward curtailing the spread of this disease. We focus in this article on learning and decision-making about AIDS in the context of high uncertainty about the disease and appropriate behavioral responses. We argue that social interactions are important for both. Using longitudinal survey data from rural Kenya and Malawi, we test this hypothesis. We investigate whether social interactions--and especially the extent to which social network partners perceive themselves to be at risk--exert causal influences on respondents' risk perceptions and on one approach to prevention, spousal communication about the threat of AIDS to the couple and their children. The study explicitly allows for the possibility that important characteristics, such as unobserved preferences or community characteristics, determine not only the outcomes of interest but also the size and composition of networks. The most important empirical result is that social networks have significant and substantial effects on risk perceptions and the adoption of new behaviors even after we control for unobserved factors.     

Incidence of AIDS and STD increasing in Shanghai

According to public health department statistics, 82 people in Shanghai had tested positive for HIV by October 1995. In the first 10 months of 1995, over 10,000 Shanghai residents were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD)--a 31.5% increase from the previous year. The largest increase was recorded for syphilis. Moreover, the ratio of male:female STD cases changed from 2:1 in 1994 to 1.5:1 in 1995. A significant share of STD cases involve purchasing agents, long-distance truck drivers, sailors, and the self-employed. Of the 82 HIV cases to date, 43 were diagnosed in 1994 and 24 involved Shanghai citizens. Sexual transmission was present in 95% of cases.