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Large-network concepts and small-network characteristics: fixed and variable factors.

Rothenberg R, Muth SQ

Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA. rrothen@emory.edu

OBJECTIVES: To compare 15 completed network studies of STD/HIV transmission with regard to their structural characteristics. To determine similarities and differences in the network characteristics in different epidemiologic settings. STUDY DESIGN: Combined analysis of nearly 40,000 dyads, using epidemiologic and network analytic methods. RESULTS: In general, transmitting networks have a right-skewed degree distribution, a large single component, and small world characteristics. They vary with regard to concurrency, assortativity, and transitivity. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis suggests that networks in which transmission takes place have a common network infrastructure, but that the actual level of transmission may be determined by factors specific to a study population. Specific quantitation of the relationship between transmission and network characteristics will require an amalgam of empirical and theoretical methods.

Published 16 August 2007 in Sex Transm Dis, 34(8): 604-12.
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