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Network Properties Among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Vary by Race

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Abstract

The HIV burden among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) may be related to variations in network characteristics of the individual’s social and sexual network. This study investigates variations in network properties among 188 Black and 295 White GBM recruited in New Orleans during the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance in 2014. Participants described up to five people who provided social support and five sex partners in the past 3 months. Network properties and network dissimilarity indicators were aggregated to the participant level as means or proportions and examined using PROC GLM. White participants reported larger networks (p = 0.0027), had known network members longer (p = 0.0033), and reported more substance use (p < 0.0001) within networks. Black participants reported networks with fewer men (p = 0.0056) and younger members (p = 0.0110) than those of White GBM. Network properties among GBM differ by race in New Orleans which may inform prevention interventions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the NHBS research participants, community partners, and the NOLA Fresh study team for making this research possible.

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  1. Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, 2071 N Summit Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Meagan Zarwell

  2. School of Public Health, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Meagan Zarwell & William T. Robinson

  3. Louisiana Office of Public Health STD/HIV Program, New Orleans, LA, USA

    William T. Robinson

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This work was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number 1U1B TS003252-004 from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by grants P30MH0522776 and T32MH019985 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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The authors declare that the findings reported have not been previously published and that the manuscript is not being simultaneously submitted elsewhere. This study was submitted and approved through the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center’s and Louisiana Department of Health’s Institutional Review Board. 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.

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Zarwell, M., Robinson, W.T. Network Properties Among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Vary by Race. AIDS Behav 23, 1315–1325 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02416-9

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