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The Health and Sociocultural Correlates of AIDS Genocidal Beliefs and Medical Mistrust Among African American MSM

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Abstract

This study examined social and health-related correlates of AIDS conspiracy theories among 464 African American men who have sex with men (MSM). Exploratory factor analysis revealed two subscales within the AIDS conspiracy beliefs scale: medical mistrust and AIDS genocidal beliefs. Multiple regression analyses revealed medical mistrust and AIDS genocidal beliefs were both associated negative condom use attitudes and higher levels of internalized homonegativity. Medical mistrust was also associated with lower knowledge of HIV risk reduction strategies. Finally, we conducted bivariate regressions to examine the subsample of participants who reported being HIV-positive and currently taking HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) to test associations between sexual behavior and HIV treatment and AIDS conspiracy theories. Among this subsample, medical mistrust was associated with having a detectable viral load and not disclosing HIV-status to all partners in the previous 3 months. Collectively, these findings have implications for HIV prevention and treatment for African American MSM.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grants R01-MH089128 and P30-MH52776 from the National Institute of Mental Health. We would like to thank the study participants and their willingness to participate in this research. We would also like to thank the partners of the Connections Creating Change study team at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research, the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, and the South Beach AIDS Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, 2071 N. Summit, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Katherine G. Quinn, Jeffrey A. Kelly, Wayne J. DiFranceisco, Sergey S. Tarima, Andrew E. Petroll & Yuri A. Amirkhanian

  2. Division of Biostatistics, Institute for Health and Society, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Sergey S. Tarima

  3. Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Andrew E. Petroll

  4. Department of Sociology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada

    Chris Sanders

  5. Department of Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Janet S. St. Lawrence

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  1. Katherine G. Quinn
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Correspondence to Katherine G. Quinn.

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All policies and procedures in this study were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Medical College of Wisconsin. 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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Quinn, K.G., Kelly, J.A., DiFranceisco, W.J. et al. The Health and Sociocultural Correlates of AIDS Genocidal Beliefs and Medical Mistrust Among African American MSM. AIDS Behav 22, 1814–1825 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1657-6

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