PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Montoya, Isaac D
TI  - Topography as a Contextual Variable in Infectious Disease Transmission
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.17.2.95
DP  - 2004 Apr 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
PG  - 95--101
VI  - 17
IP  - 2
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/17/2/95.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/17/2/95.full
SO  - Clin Lab Sci2004 Apr 01; 17
AB  - OBJECTIVE: This paper examines whether or not topography is a contextual variable that indirectly influences the transmission of infectious diseases. Age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, economic status, injection drug use, and high-risk sexual behavior are known to influence infectious diseases transmission, but the effects of topography are often overlooked.DESIGN: A sample of 395 drug users were chosen from census tracts based upon a target profile of drug use behavior and demographics for the city of Houston. HIV was chosen as the infectious disease used to test this hypothesis.SETTING: Residents of 16 census tracts in Houston, Texas participated in this study.RESULTS: The findings revealed that census tracts that were ‘isolated’ by topographic barriers, such as bayous, parks, railroad tracks, railway yards, major thoroughfares, freeways, and unique street grids had fewer cases of HIV than census tracks that were more accessible to thru-traffic.CONCLUSION: The research findings suggest that future research studies should consider topography as being contextually related to infectious disease transmission.ABBREVIATIONS USED: HIV = human immunodeficiency virus