Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
11-1-2022
Journal
AIDS Care
Abstract
Despite the increasing availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), Latinx men who have sex with men (LMSM) are not receiving PrEP-related information. To understand the influence of LMSM sexual networks on PrEP-related conversations and encouragement to use PrEP, this cross-sectional egocentric network study characterized the PrEP-related communication of 130 LMSM egos with 507 sexual partners (alters). Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling methods from a Miami-Dade County community-health organization. Egocentric-level data were collected from 2018-2019 and analyzed using multilevel modeling. Of egos, 30% reported using PrEP. Closeness between participants and sexual partners played a role in PrEP conversation and encouragement. Participants believed they would have less success convincing sexual partners to use PrEP if partners were older. Participants perceived higher likelihood to talk about PrEP or success in encouraging alters to use PrEP if, relative to meeting sexual partners on Grindr, they met at a friend's party, gay-centric community event, or school/work. Given that increased closeness and in-person sexual partner meeting venues are associated with PrEP information dissemination and encouragement, social network-based interventions can capitalize on PrEP navigators who run network visualizations, and with this information develop a longitudinal plan to increase PrEP conversation and encouragement as needed for each network.
Keywords
Male, Humans, Homosexuality, Male, Cross-Sectional Studies, HIV Infections, Sexual and Gender Minorities, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Partners, Communication, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, Hispanic or Latino, social network analysis, HIV, Latino men who have sex with men
DOI
10.1080/09540121.2021.2023728
PMID
35044269
PMCID
PMC9294066
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
11-1-2023
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Author MSS
Published Open-Access
yes