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News of Biomedical Advances in HIV: Relationship to Treatment Optimism and Expected Risk Behavior in US MSM

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Abstract

HIV treatment optimism and the ways in which news of HIV biomedical advances in HIV is presented to the most at-risk communities interact in ways that affect risk behavior and the incidence of HIV. The goal of the current study was to understand the relationships among HIV treatment optimism, knowledge of HIV biomedical advances, and current and expected increased risk behavior as a result of reading hypothetical news stories of further advances. Most of an online-recruited sample of MSM were quite knowledgeable about current biomedical advances. After reading three hypothetical news stories, 15–24% of those not living with HIV and 26–52% of those living with HIV reported their condom use would decrease if the story they read were true. Results suggest the importance of more cautious reporting on HIV biomedical advances, and for targeting individuals with greater treatment optimism and those living with HIV via organizations where they are most likely to receive their information about HIV.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded with internal funds from the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Nursing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Nursing, University of Missouri – St. Louis, 220 Nursing Administration Building, South Campus, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA

    Rick S. Zimmerman

  2. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri – St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Allison L. Kirschbaum

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  1. Rick S. Zimmerman
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  2. Allison L. Kirschbaum
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Correspondence to Rick S. Zimmerman.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Zimmerman received a small grant from the University of Missouri—St. Louis to conduct part of this study. The second author has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

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

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

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Zimmerman, R.S., Kirschbaum, A.L. News of Biomedical Advances in HIV: Relationship to Treatment Optimism and Expected Risk Behavior in US MSM. AIDS Behav 22, 367–378 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1744-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1744-3

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