Mapping U.S. long-haul truck drivers' multiplex networks and risk topography in inner-city neighborhoods

Health Place. 2015 Jul:34:9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.03.008. Epub 2015 Apr 7.

Abstract

This article illustrates how urban inner-city trucking milieux may influence STI/BBI/HIV acquisition and transmission risks for U.S. long-haul truckers, as well as their social and risk relationships. Using mixed methods, we collected ethnoepidemiological and biological data from long-haul truck drivers and their risk contacts in inner-city trucking milieux in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Key findings indicate that within the risk-endemic environment of distressed inner-city areas, diverse trucking risk milieux can amplify STI/BBI/HIV risk for multiplex networks of truckers. Inner-city neighborhood location, short geographic distance among risk contacts, and trucker concurrency can potentially exacerbate transmission via bridging higher-risk individuals with lower-risk populations at disparate geographic and epidemiological locations.

Keywords: Drugs; Geography of risk; Long-haul truck drivers; Networks; STIs.

MeSH terms

  • Focus Groups
  • Geography, Medical
  • Georgia / epidemiology
  • HIV Infections / prevention & control
  • HIV Infections / transmission
  • Humans
  • Illicit Drugs / supply & distribution
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Male
  • Motor Vehicles*
  • Poverty Areas*
  • Risk-Taking*
  • Sex Workers / psychology
  • Sexual Behavior
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases* / epidemiology
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases* / transmission
  • Social Support*
  • Unsafe Sex
  • Urban Population

Substances

  • Illicit Drugs