142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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310591
Syndemic Production and Sexual Compulsivity in a Cohort of Highly Sexually Active Gay and Bisexual Men

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM

Jeffrey T. Parsons, PhD , Department of Psychology and the Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
Raymond Moody, BA , Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST) and Doctoral Program in Psychology, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
H. Jonathon Rendina, PhD, MPH , Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
Ana Ventuneac, PhD , Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
Christian Grov, PhD, MPH , Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of CUNY, and the Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training, Brooklyn, NY
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: Syndemic factors—substance use, intimate partner violence (IPV), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and depression—as well as issues of sexual compulsivity (SC) and hypersexual disorder (HD) have been shown to significantly increase risk of HIV infection and transmission. However, substantially less is known about the role of SC and HD within syndemic models of HIV risk.

Methods: A diverse sample of 371 highly sexually active (≥9 partners in previous 90 days) gay and bisexual men (GBM), aged 18-73 (M=36.8), completed at-home surveys including measures of sociodemographic characteristics, syndemics, and SC/HD, and a timeline follow-back interview of sexual behavior. Men were grouped for analyses as experiencing neither SC nor HD, SC only, or SC with HD.

Results: Chi-square analyses indicated all three groups differed significantly on experiences of IPV (p=.005), CSA (p=.04), and depression (p<.001), as well as the average number of syndemic factors they experienced (p<.001), but did not differ significantly on polysubstance use. Path analyses revealed significant direct effects of syndemics on SC/HD grouping (p<.001) as well as syndemics and SC/HD grouping on serodiscordant unprotected anal intercourse acts (p=.02; p=.05) and HIV-positive status (p=.001; p=.002). There was a small but significant indirect effect of syndemics on HIV-positive status through SC/HD grouping (p=.01).

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the utility of examining distinctions in the severity of SC and HD within the existing syndemics framework. Specifically, SC/HD appears to be a contributing syndemic factor rather than an antecedent of syndemics.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Differentiate sexual compulsivity severity among highly sexually active GBM. Explain contributions of SC/HD within the existing syndemics framework.

Keyword(s): Sexual Risk Behavior, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been conducting research on gay and bisexual men's sexual health for more than 20 years. I am a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Hunter college and my accomplishments include more than 175 authored and co-authored manuscripts, serving on the editorial board of numerous journals in the field, and serving as the principal investigator on many large, NIH-funded research projects.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3045.0: HIV/AIDS and Mental Health