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Education and Work |
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Like IDU correlations, the only significant correlations for education are among black people, mainly women. For black men, the only correlation is between infection rates and the percent of the black male population who completed school through 9th grade. This correlation value, |0.638| (Ref Table 8), supports expectations; if there is a low school retention rate, people are less likely to learn about the risks of HIV/AIDS and how the virus is spread. This also means less time is spent in school and possibly more time on the streets, where drugs are available. Remarkably, the highest correlation between black women and education, |0.845| (Ref Table 9), is for women who have graduated from high school. This was not expected for the same reasons as men who dropped out of school. One would think that knowledge of HIV/AIDS would coincide with obtaining a high school diploma. This could uncover a problem within the New York City school system’s health education. After looking at graduation rates, the next step was to look at the percent of people over age 16 that are in the work force. A correlation was not expected, people would spend more time occupied than in places where drugs are available. This is reflected in the low and ultimately insignificant value of |0.307| (Ref Table 14). |