CONTENT: HIV infections continue to rise in a new generation of young, gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (YMSM) despite three decades of HIV prevention and recent biomedical technologies to deter infection.Objectives: To examine the incidence of HIV and the demographics, behavioral, and structural factors associated with incident infections.
DESIGN: Cohort study.
PARTICIPANTS: 600 YMSM who were ages 18-19 at baseline.
RESULTS: At baseline 6 prevalent cases of HIV were detected. Over the course of 36 months and six additional waves of data collection, we identified 43 (7.2%) incident cases of HIV. Incident infections were marginally higher among those residing in neighborhoods with higher rates of HIV prevalence. Using Cox proportional hazards models we detected that hazard ratios for time to HIV seroconversion were significantly higher for Black YMSM (HR = 7.46) and Mixed/Other race YMSM (HR = 7.99), and older age at sexual debut with another man was associated with a lower risk of HIV seroconversion (HR = 0.50), while low perceived familial SES was marginally associated with an increased risk for HIV seroconversion (HR = 2.45).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the disparities for HIV that exist within the population of sexual minority men and suggest that we attend to behavioral, structural and social conditions to effectively tailor HIV prevention for a new generation of YMSM with a keen eyes to the conditions faced by racial and ethnic minority YMSM which heightened their risk for acquiring HIV.
Incidence of HIV infection in young gay, bisexual, and other YMSM: The P18 cohort study
Abstract