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HIV Status Disclosure and Associated Characteristics Among HIV-Positive MSM Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Jinan, China

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Abstract

Disclosure of HIV status offers potential benefits to individuals and is also good for public health. Limited studies have been conducted to gain insight into the current situation and associated factors of HIV disclosure among HIV-positive Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) in the era of “treat all.” We carried out a cross-sectional study among MSM receiving antiretroviral therapy from October 2020 to January 2021 at a hospital in Jinan, China. We used univariate and multivariable logistic regression to examine the factors associated with general disclosure and disclosure to family, friends, and sexual partners. Of the 585 participants recruited, 62.2% reported HIV disclosure, among which 25.3% had disclosed their status to family members, 25.3% had disclosed it to friends, and 28.4% had disclosed it to partners. The findings suggest that HIV disclosure is more likely to occur among individuals who are younger, married/cohabiting, and who self-identify as homosexual/bisexual. Participants with higher education levels or personal monthly incomes are less likely to disclose their HIV status. Furthermore, related factors of disclosure vary across the types of disclosure targets. Given the positive outcomes of disclosure, interventions and implementation research to facilitate it are urgently needed for MSM.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the subjects for their participation and cooperation. The authors also thank the medical staffs of Shandong Provincial Public Health Clinical Center for their help in patient recruitment and data collection.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFE0103800).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Jing Ma, Kedi Jiao, Yuxi Lin, Yu Yan, Yijun Li, Chunxiao Cheng, Wenwen Jia, Jing Meng, Lina Wang, Xuan Yang, Yanwen Cao, Zhonghui Zhao, Xinting Wang & Wei Ma

  2. Institution for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 16992 Jingshi Road, Jinan, 250014, Shandong, China

    Meizhen Liao & Dianmin Kang

  3. Shandong Public Health Clinical Center, 12 East Martyrs Mountain Road, Jinan, 250132, Shandong, China

    Chunmei Wang

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Contributions

JM conceptualized the study, conducted the data analysis and completed the writing of the manuscript. KJ conducted the data collation. ML, CW and DK guided the data collection and analysis. KJ, JM, YL, YY, YL, CC, WJ, JM, XY, WJ, YC, LW, and ZZ conducted the material preparation, data collection, data entry and management. WM and XW guided and assisted the study design, data analysis and the revision of the manuscript. All authors participated in critically appraising the content and approved the final version.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xinting Wang or Wei Ma.

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Conflict of interest

We declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

This study was reviewed and approved by Shandong University Ethics Review Committee of Public Health (IRB No: 20180904).

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

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Participants consented to the publication of their de-identified data.

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Ma, J., Jiao, K., Liao, M. et al. HIV Status Disclosure and Associated Characteristics Among HIV-Positive MSM Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Jinan, China. AIDS Behav 27, 2205–2215 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-022-03952-7

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