Examining the Impact of a Psychosocial Syndemic on Past Six-Month HIV Screening Behavior of Black Men who have Sex with Men in the United States: Results from the POWER Study.
Cristian J ChandlerLeigh A BukowskiDerrick D MatthewsMary E HawkNina MarkovicJames E EganRonald D StallPublished in: AIDS and behavior (2020)
Syndemic production theory has been used to explore HIV transmission risk or infections but has not been used to investigate prevention behavior, or with large samples of non-Whites. This analysis is the first to explore the impact of syndemic factors on previous six-month HIV screening behavior among US Black MSM. Data from Promoting Our Worth, Equality and Resilience (POWER) were analyzed from 3294 participants using syndemic variable counts and measures of interaction/synergy. Syndemic variables included: past three-month poly-drug use, depression, last year intimate partner violence, HIV risk and problematic binge drinking. BMSM reporting two syndemic factors were more likely to report screening (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.04-1.80; p = 0.028) with no significant associations for three or more conditions. Measures of joint effect revealed that there were synergies among depression, problematic binge drinking and poly-drug use but these psychosocial factors cannot entirely explain testing patterns and excess disease burden among BMSM.
Keyphrases
- hiv testing
- men who have sex with men
- hiv positive
- antiretroviral therapy
- hiv infected
- human immunodeficiency virus
- hiv aids
- south africa
- hepatitis c virus
- depressive symptoms
- intimate partner violence
- mental health
- emergency department
- sleep quality
- climate change
- machine learning
- alcohol consumption
- big data
- risk factors
- physical activity
- electronic health record
- adverse drug