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The Association Between Condomless Anal Sex and Social Support Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM) in Six U.S. Cities: A Study Using Data from the HIV Prevention Trials Network BROTHERS Study (HPTN 061)

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Abstract

We assessed how egocentric (i.e., self-generated descriptions of a person’s social contacts) network structure and composition corresponded with reported instances of condomless receptive and insertive anal intercourse with men who were reportedly HIV-infected or of unknown HIV serostatus in a sample of black men who have sex with men (MSM) in six U.S. cities. Ratings showing a higher percentage of network members who provided social participation and medical support were positively associated with reporting condomless sex. There were also significant positive associations between stimulant use and condomless insertive and receptive anal sex. Future research should examine the social processes that underlie these associations and explore ways that social support can affect HIV prevention efforts for black MSM.

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Acknowledgements

Keith A. Hermanstyne received support from the UCLA-Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and Kenneth B. Wells and Nina T. Harawa provided study design feedback and research mentorship on this project.

Funding

Hong-Van Tieu reports that the HPTN 061 study was funded at the New York Blood Center by NIH 1-U01-AI06946. Steven Shoptaw received support via the P30 MH058107 Grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, UCSF Weil Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, 1930 Market Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102, USA

    Keith A. Hermanstyne

  2. Indiana University Network Science Institute, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Harold D. Green Jr.

  3. Center for Applied Network Analysis and Systems Science, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Harold D. Green Jr.

  4. Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention, New York Blood Center, New York, NY, USA

    Hong-Van Tieu

  5. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Hong-Van Tieu

  6. Division of HIV Services, JWCH Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Christopher Hucks-Ortiz

  7. Department of Human Development, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, USA

    Leo Wilton

  8. Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Leo Wilton

  9. Department of Family Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Steven Shoptaw

Authors
  1. Keith A. Hermanstyne
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  2. Harold D. Green Jr.
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  3. Hong-Van Tieu
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  4. Christopher Hucks-Ortiz
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  5. Leo Wilton
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  6. Steven Shoptaw
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keith A. Hermanstyne.

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Conflict of interest

Keith A. Hermanstyne declares that he has no conflict of interest. Harold D. Green, Jr. declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hong-Van Tieu has received a research grant from Merck. Christopher Hucks-Ortiz declares that he has no conflict of interest. Leo Wilton declares that he has no conflict of interest. Steven Shoptaw reports grants from the National Institute on Mental Health during the conduct of the study and other support from Medicinova, Inc. outside of the submitted work.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of each institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Hermanstyne, K.A., Green, H.D., Tieu, HV. et al. The Association Between Condomless Anal Sex and Social Support Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM) in Six U.S. Cities: A Study Using Data from the HIV Prevention Trials Network BROTHERS Study (HPTN 061). AIDS Behav 23, 1387–1395 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2315-y

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