There were significant racial differences in risk-taking behaviour, with black MSM reporting the lowest number of sexual partners and engaging in less condomless sex. Depression scores were significantly higher for white MSM than for black MSM, whereas suicide attempts were more common among black MSM than white MSM. In other words, black men were more likely to have sex only with men and women of their own race than white men they were more likely to have sex with more of the people they did know but they were less likely to have sex with people who also had sex with each other.īlack MSM also reported a larger number of sexual partners who were female, transgender or did not identify as gay.Īt the individual level, results show that there were racial differences in terms of substance abuse and psychological symptoms: black men were more likely to use cannabis, with white men significantly more likely to report alcohol abuse. Density: the ratio of sex ties between members in a network out of all the possible sex ties that could exist.īlack MSM were found to have high levels of density and racial homophily, but low transitivity.Transitivity: the average number of sex ties between network members.Homophily: the degree of sexual preference you have for people of your own ‘type’ (in this case, race).Sexual connectedness within a network was measured by measuring three attributes: For sexual partners, detailed information was obtained, including frequency of sexual contact, condom use and so forth.
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Once the participant named five network members, information was gathered regarding demographics, characteristics of the relationship and interactions between the participant and the network members. Networks were generated by asking each participant to indicate individuals who were known to them socially, sexually or as people they took drugs with. There was a much larger percentage of HIV-positive black MSM (32%) than either Latino (13%) or white MSM (2%) in the cohort.
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Of the cohort, 49% indicated some college education, with a higher percentage of white MSM indicating this (59%).Ī higher percentage of black MSM indicated bisexuality as a sexual preference when compared with white MSM (26% vs 10%).
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All of the 1015 participants were aged 16-29, with 34% identifying as black, 30% as Latino, 25% as white and 11% as other. Researchers used community sampling, drawing on partner and peer connections when recruiting participants. Factors such as homophily (the likelihood of having a same-race sexual partner) and density of networks may play a crucial role in HIV transmission. As well as individual factors, the authors took a network approach, involving measures of sexual connectedness within networks which could possibly account for higher HIV rates among black YMSM. This cohort study with young men who have sex with men (YMSM) in Chicago explored the effects of networks on HIV transmission in order to explain the racial disparities in HIV rates among MSM in the US.