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Associations Between Partner-Venue Specific Personal Responsibility Beliefs and Transmission Risk Behavior by HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)

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Abstract

Personal responsibility beliefs of HIV-positive individuals to protect sex partners are an important determinant of engagement in transmission risk behavior. However, the degree to which such beliefs vary across different partners is unknown. HIV-positive men who have sex with men (n = 248) completing an online survey rated their personal responsibility beliefs for partners met in up to four different ways: (a) in a bar; (b) through the internet; (c) in a public sex environment (PSE); or (d) through friends or family. For those reporting two or more partner-meeting venues in the prior 3 months (n = 98), about a third reported variation in responsibility ratings. Means among the venues were compared in pairwise fashion, with the strongest beliefs accruing to partners met through friends or family and the least with partners met in PSEs. These results provide further evidence that identifying ways to increase personal responsibility beliefs is an important goal, as well as is the application of Bandura’s theory of moral agency to HIV transmission risk behavior.

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Acknowledgments

This study was undertaken as part of the “Structural interventions to lower alcohol-related STI/HIV,” Grant number R01AA01627001, funded by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The findings and conclusions in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Author notes

  1. Keith J. Horvath

    Present address: Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, 2071 Summit Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prevention Research Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHHSTP, 1600 Clifton Road, MSE-37, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Ann O’Leary

  2. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Keith J. Horvath & B. R. Simon Rosser

Authors
  1. Ann O’Leary
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  2. Keith J. Horvath
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  3. B. R. Simon Rosser
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Correspondence to Ann O’Leary.

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O’Leary, A., Horvath, K.J. & Simon Rosser, B.R. Associations Between Partner-Venue Specific Personal Responsibility Beliefs and Transmission Risk Behavior by HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM). AIDS Behav 17, 1855–1861 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0291-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0291-1

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