Social Capital and Risk of Concurrent Sexual Partners Among African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi

Concurrent sexual partnerships (i.e., relationships that overlap in time) contribute to higher HIV acquisition risk. Social capital, defned as resources and connections available to individuals is hypothesized to reduce sexual HIV risk behavior, including sexual concurrency. Additionally, we do not know whether any association between social capital and sexual concurrency is moderated by gender. Multivariable logistic regression tested the association between social capital and sexual concurrency and efect modifcation by gender. Among 1445 African Americans presenting for care at an urban STI clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, mean social capital was 2.85 (range 1–5), mean age was 25 (SD=6), and 62% were women. Sexual concurrency in the current year was lower for women compared to men (45% vs. 55%, χ2 (df=1)=11.07, p=.001). Higher social capital was associated with lower adjusted odds of sexual concurrency for women compared to men (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]=0.62 (95% CI 0.39–0.97), p=0.034), controlling for sociodemographic and psychosocial covariates. Interventions that add social capital components may be important for lowering sexual risk among African Americans in Mississippi

Depressed mood predicts pulmonary rehabilitation completion among women, but not men

SummaryBackgroundAs many as 30% of patients who start pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) fail to complete it, and depressed mood has been associated with PR non-completion. Depression is more common in women than men with COPD and historically women with COPD have been under studied. However, no studies to date have investigated gender-specific predictors of PR completion.MethodsThe study included 111 patients with COPD who enrolled in a community based outpatient PR program in Providence, RI. Patients who attended 20 or more sessions were designated “completers”. Depression was measured using the CES-D. Logistic regression models were evaluated to test depressed mood as a predictor of PR completion. Analyses controlled for demographic and health variables found to differ between completers and non-completers.ResultsPatients were 95% white and 49.5% women, and 74% had a GOLD stage ≥3. Sixty-eight percent of patients were PR completers. A logistic regression model, showed that lower depressed mood independently predicted PR completion across all patients (adjusted OR = 0.92, p = .002). In gender-stratified analyses, lower depressed mood was an independent predictor of PR completion for women (adjusted OR = .91, p = .024) but not men (adjusted OR = .97, p = .45). Greater 6-min walk test distance was also an independent predictor of PR completion among women.ConclusionDepressed mood is an important predictor of completion of community based PR among women. Screening and brief treatment of depression should be considered in practice

Social Capital and Risk of Concurrent Sexual Partners Among African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi

Concurrent sexual partnerships (i.e., relationships that overlap in time) contribute to higher HIV acquisition risk. Socialcapital, defned as resources and connections available to individuals is hypothesized to reduce sexual HIV risk behavior,including sexual concurrency. Additionally, we do not know whether any association between social capital and sexual concurrency is moderated by gender. Multivariable logistic regression tested the association between social capital and sexualconcurrency and efect modifcation by gender. Among 1445 African Americans presenting for care at an urban STI clinicin Jackson, Mississippi, mean social capital was 2.85 (range 1--5), mean age was 25 (SD=6), and 62% were women. Sexualconcurrency in the current year was lower for women compared to men (45% vs. 55%, χ2(df=1)=11.07, p=.001). Highersocial capital was associated with lower adjusted odds of sexual concurrency for women compared to men (adjusted OddsRatio [aOR]=0.62 (95% CI 0.39--0.97), p=0.034), controlling for sociodemographic and psychosocial covariates. Interventions that add social capital components may be important for lowering sexual risk among African Americans in Mississippi