Positive and Negative Support Roles in the Social Networks of Vulnerable People

Abstract

Introduction: Social networks have shown promise in curbing drug dependency and infectious diseases among marginalized populations. The purpose of this study is to elucidate how relationship strength in social networks is associated with risk behaviours for infectious diseases. Methods: Two reviews were conducted: 1) a systematic review exploring the association between risk behaviours and relationship strength 2) a review on the utilization of respondent driven sampling (RDS). We also analyzed network data to determine the association between recent injection drug use and recent crack use. Results: Our reviews revealed that few studies link relationship strength and risk behaviours; moreover, RDS is effective method of sampling from marginalized populations. Finally, our analysis demonstrated that close relationships are associated with drug use. Conclusion: “Close” relationships are important in arbitrating injection drug use and crack smoking. More research addressing the issues of using data from dynamic social processes and hard-to-reach populations is needed.