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.