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The Intersection of Age and HIV Status for Black Sexual Minority Men (BSMM): A Social Network Analysis

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Abstract

Advancements in treatment have resulted in increased life expectancy for individuals living with HIV. However, there is a dearth of literature focused on the intersection of age and HIV status, particularly for older Black sexual minority men (SMM) who are disproportionately impacted by HIV. This study aimed to examine the intersecting effect of age and HIV status on Black SMM social networks in a sample from the Social Network and Prevention Study. Participants were 18 years of age or older, identified as cis-gender Black or African American, self-identified as SMM, reported unprotected sex within the past six months, and resided in Baltimore city or a surrounding county. The sample was divided into four categories by age (e.g., young, mature) and HIV status (e.g., positive, negative). Of the sample, 167 men were (a) Young & HIV negative, 116 men were (b) Young & HIV positive, 44 men were (c) Mature & HIV negative, and 42 men were (d) Mature & HIV positive. Among the four groups, mature men who were HIV positive had the fewest average number of alters who knew they were SMM. There was also overlap in the range of age of sexual partners across the four groups, ranging from 17 to 53.5 (Group 1), 20–60 (Group 2), 29.5–60 (Group 3), and 23–63 (Group 4) years of age. Although a cross-sectional analysis, our findings suggest value in life course-informed research and practice for providing HIV and sexual health programming. Focus on services provided by community organizations may help mitigate existing disparities.

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Data Availability

A de-identified data set may be made available upon reasonable request to the Corresponding Author.

Code Availability

Code may be made available upon reasonable request to the Corresponding Author.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful for our colleagues at ElderPride, Chase Brexton, for their thoughtful additions to this manuscript.

Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from National Institute on Drug Abuse under Grant Agreement R01DA031030.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Catherine A. Clair, Connor Volpi, Carl A. Latkin & Karin E. Tobin

  2. Chase Brexton Health Care, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Deborah Dunn

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  1. Catherine A. Clair
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  2. Connor Volpi
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  3. Deborah Dunn
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  4. Carl A. Latkin
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  5. Karin E. Tobin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Catherine Clair, Connor Volpi, Carl Latkin, and Karin Tobin. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Catherine Clair and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Catherine A. Clair.

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The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (No.3612).

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

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Clair, C.A., Volpi, C., Dunn, D. et al. The Intersection of Age and HIV Status for Black Sexual Minority Men (BSMM): A Social Network Analysis. AIDS Behav 28, 238–244 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-023-04127-8

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