Sexual Mixing Patterns and Heterosexual HIV Transmission Among African Americans in the Southeastern United States

Heterosexually transmitted HIV infection rates are disproportionately high among African Americans. HIV transmission is influenced by sexual network characteristics, including sexual partnership mixing patterns among sub-populations with different prevalences of infection

Remdesivir and COVID-19

The Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents with HIV and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines for hepatitis C virus treatment suggest that combination therapy for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection will outperform single drugs

Ending the Epidemic of Heterosexual HIV Transmission Among African Americans

This article examines factors responsible for the stark racial disparities in HIV infection in the U.S. and the now concentrated epidemic among African Americans. Sexual network patterns characterized by concurrency and mixing among different subpopulations, together with high rates of other sexually transmitted infections, facilitate dissemination of HIV among African Americans. The social and economic environment in which many African Americans live shapes sexual network patterns and increases personal infection risk almost independently of personal behavior. The African American HIV epidemic constitutes a national crisis whose successful resolution will require modifying the social and economic systems, structures, and processes that facilitate HIV transmission in this population

Measuring Concurrency Attitudes: Development and Validation of a Vignette-Based Scale

Concurrent sexual partnerships (partnerships that overlap in time) may contribute to higher rates of HIV transmission in African Americans. Attitudes toward a behavior constitute an important component of most models of health-related behavior and behavioral change. We have developed a scale, employing realistic vignettes that appear to reliably measure attitudes about concurrency in young African American adults

Social determinants of syphilis in South China: the effect of sibling position on syphilis and sexual risk behaviours.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the relationship between sibling position and sexual risk based on behavioural and syphilis infection data from sexually transmitted infection (STI) patients in South China. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study examining sexual behaviours and syphilis infection. SETTING: 4 STI clinics in the Pearl River Delta of South China. PARTICIPANTS: 1792 Chinese men and women attending STI clinics. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: STI history, syphilis infection defined as positive non-treponemal and treponemal tests. RESULTS: Among all clinic patients, 824 (46.3%) were first-born, 354 (19.9%) were middle-born and 602 (33.8%) were final-born. Middle-born individuals had a higher percentage of reported STI history (44.7% compared to 34.7%, p<0.001) and syphilis infection (9.7% compared to 4.9%, p=0.01) among men (n=1163) compared to other sibling positions in bivariate analyses, but not in the final multivariate model. The relationship between sibling position and syphilis was independent of income and education level. There was no trend observed between middle-born position and female sexual risk behaviours (n=626). Higher education was significantly associated with syphilis among women and men in respective multivariate models. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that middle-born men in China may have an increased sexual risk compared to other sibling positions. As Chinese family and social structures change, a more thorough understanding of how demographic factors influence sexual risk behaviours is needed

Confidentiality considerations for use of social-spatial data on the social determinants of health: Sexual and reproductive health case study

Understanding whether and how the places where people live, work, and play are associated with health behaviors and health is essential to understanding the social determinants of health. However, social-spatial data which link a person and their attributes to a geographic location (e.g., home address) create potential confidentiality risks. Despite the growing body of literature describing approaches to protect individual confidentiality when utilizing social-spatial data, peer-reviewed manuscripts displaying identifiable individual point data or quasi-identifiers (attributes associated with the individual or disease that narrow identification) in maps persist, suggesting that knowledge has not been effectively translated into public health research practices. Using sexual and reproductive health as a case study, we explore the extent to which maps appearing in recent peer-reviewed publications risk participant confidentiality. Our scoping review of sexual and reproductive health literature published and indexed in PubMed between January 1, 2013 and September 1, 2015 identified 45 manuscripts displaying participant data in maps as points or small-population geographic units, spanning 26 journals and representing studies conducted in 20 countries. Notably, 56% (13/23) of publications presenting point data on maps either did not describe approaches used to mask data or masked data inadequately. Furthermore, 18% (4/22) of publications displaying data using small-population geographic units included at least two quasi-identifiers. These findings highlight the need for heightened education for researchers, reviewers, and editorial teams. We aim to provide readers with a primer on key confidentiality considerations when utilizing linked social-spatial data for visualizing results. Given the widespread availability of place-based data and the ease of creating maps, it is critically important to raise awareness on when social-spatial data constitute protected health information, best practices for masking geographic identifiers, and methods of balancing disclosure risk and scientific utility. We conclude with recommendations to support the preservation of confidentiality when disseminating results

Bacterial vaginosis and HIV acquisition: a meta-analysis of published studies

To assess and summarize the published literature on the extent to which bacterial vaginosis (BV) may increase the risk of HIV acquisition

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptom Severity and Sexually Transmitted Infection and HIV Risk in African American Incarcerated Men

Sexually transmitted infections (STI)/HIV rates are disproportionately high among men involved in the criminal justice system. Mental health disorders, including personality disorders, are also elevated among inmates. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) may be an important risk factor for STI/HIV, yet remains relatively understudied, particularly among inmates

Worth the Weight: Using Inverse Probability Weighted Cox Models in AIDS Research

In an observational study with a time-to-event outcome, the standard analytical approach is the Cox proportional hazards regression model. As an alternative to the standard Cox model, in this article we present a method that uses inverse probability (IP) weights to estimate the effect of a baseline exposure on a time-to-event outcome. IP weighting can be used to adjust for multiple measured confounders of a baseline exposure in order to estimate marginal effects, which compare the distribution of outcomes when the entire population is exposed versus when the entire population is unexposed. For example, IP-weighted Cox models allow for estimation of the marginal hazard ratio and marginal survival curves. IP weights can also be employed to adjust for selection bias due to loss to follow-up. This approach is illustrated using an example that estimates the effect of injection drug use on time until AIDS or death among HIV-infected women