Background: Although HIV antiretroviral treatment (ART) access and uptake have increased among racial/ethnic minority individuals, lower rates of ART adherence and viral suppression persist, especially among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) compared with their White counterparts.
Setting: Black men who have sex with men living with HIV (BMSM+) residing in Los Angeles County (N = 124) were recruited in-person (eg, clinic) and online (eg, social networking apps).
Methods: Participants completed a cross-sectional survey measuring demographic characteristics, structural syndemics (poverty, criminal justice involvement, and housing instability), and psychosocial syndemics (mental health and substance use). A text message survey assessed missed doses of ART over the past week. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models were used to evaluate variables associated with the number of missed doses of ART.
Results: On average, participants missed 1.30 doses of ART (SD = 2.09) and reported structural syndemics: poverty (56.1%), criminal justice involvement (36.6%), housing instability (26.3%), and psychosocial syndemics: childhood sexual abuse (51.8%), intimate partner violence (16.9%), depression (39%), and problem alcohol use (15.5%). After controlling for employment, age, education, and psychosocial syndemics, participants with a one-point increase in structural syndemic indicators were found to be 1.63 times more likely to have missed a dose of ART.
Conclusions: Structural syndemic were associated with ART nonadherence among BMSM+ after adjusting for demographic and psychosocial factors. HIV treatment interventions that incorporate financial incentives, legal support, and housing may help improve ART adherence among BMSM+. Findings suggest that key priorities to ending the HIV epidemic must include structural interventions that alleviate poverty, eliminate disproportionate policing and criminalization, and end homelessness.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002806 | DOI Listing |
Biostatistics
December 2024
Department of Statistical Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Wake Forest University, 127 Manchester Hall, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, United States.
The opioid epidemic is a significant public health challenge in North Carolina, but limited data restrict our understanding of its complexity. Examining trends and relationships among different outcomes believed to reflect opioid misuse provides an alternative perspective to understand the opioid epidemic. We use a Bayesian dynamic spatial factor model to capture the interrelated dynamics within six different county-level outcomes, such as illicit opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to drug overdose, treatment counts for opioid use disorder, patients receiving prescriptions for buprenorphine, and newly diagnosed cases of acute and chronic hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransgend Health
December 2024
Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Purpose: Trans and gender diverse (TGD) people are one of the world's most marginalized populations. Current evidence indicates that ostracism faced by these communities leads to multiple adverse conditions. The synergistic impact of these conditions -a syndemic-has been well established among other marginalized populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrop Med Infect Dis
November 2024
Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9, Canada.
Marginalized groups in Manitoba, Canada, especially females and people who inject drugs, are overrepresented in new HIV diagnoses and disproportionately affected by HIV and structural disadvantages. Informed by syndemic theory, our aim was to understand people living with HIV's (PLHIV) gendered and intersecting barriers and facilitators across the cascade of HIV care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was co-designed and co-led alongside people with lived experience and a research advisory committee.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex Transm Dis
December 2024
Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Background: Syphilis rates in the United States have dramatically increased in recent years and are high among young men who have sex with men and transgender women. Yet, few studies have examined a wide-range of risk factors for syphilis incidence prospectively in young sexual and gender minority (YSGM) populations in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople living with HIV (PLWH) experience a range of co-occurring psychosocial stressors, mental health symptoms, and structural barriers (e.g., "syndemics") that can impair their ability to adhere to medical recommendations for treatment.
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