Improved measures of racial mixing among men who have sex with men using Newman's assortativity coefficient
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Updated: May 28, 2026

Assessment of Sexual Behavior of Male Mice
Published on: March 5, 2020
Daniel D Bohl1, Willi McFarland, H Fisher Raymond
1School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Objective:
To measure sexual mixing among racial groups of men who have sex with men (MSM).
Methods:
The authors explore its potential impacts, making two methodological advancements over previous work. First, the authors pioneer the use of Newman's assortativity coefficient to characterise mixing among MSM. Second, the authors examine mixing at the level of primary ties and at the level of secondary ties.
Results:
Results from the 1142-participant sample suggest that MSM are highly assortative by all races at the secondary level.
Conclusions:
Networks of MSM may be more tightly contracted around racial groupings than previously supposed. These groupings may lead to increased HIV transmission in certain racial groups.
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