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Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV

In the context of HIV-related stigma and discrimination, people living with HIV (PLHIV) might be vulnerable to a ‘syndemic’ of co-occurring psychosocial challenges that can affect sexual behavior. The present study examined how HIV-related discrimination contributes to co-occurring psychosocial synd...

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Autores principales: Chan, Randolph C. H., Operario, Don, Mak, Winnie W. S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7143361/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32187991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061924
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author Chan, Randolph C. H.
Operario, Don
Mak, Winnie W. S.
author_facet Chan, Randolph C. H.
Operario, Don
Mak, Winnie W. S.
author_sort Chan, Randolph C. H.
collection PubMed
description In the context of HIV-related stigma and discrimination, people living with HIV (PLHIV) might be vulnerable to a ‘syndemic’ of co-occurring psychosocial challenges that can affect sexual behavior. The present study examined how HIV-related discrimination contributes to co-occurring psychosocial syndemic problems and results in inconsistent condom use among PLHIV in Hong Kong. Two-hundred and ninety-one PLHIV were recruited to complete a self-report questionnaire. More than one-quarter of the sample experienced two or more psychosocial syndemic problems, and 74.1% of the participants who had sex with steady partners reported inconsistent condom use over the past three months. The results indicated that HIV-related discrimination was positively predictive of the number of psychosocial syndemic problems. HIV-related discrimination and psychosocial syndemics were associated with increased odds of inconsistent condom use with steady partners (AOR = 5.40 and AOR = 3.09 respectively). Findings from structural equation modeling showed that psychosocial syndemics mediated the effect of HIV-related discrimination on condom use consistency with steady partners. PLHIV in Hong Kong suffered from the syndemic effects of stigma, social isolation, and poor mental health, which rendered them vulnerable to condomless sex. In order to curb the rapidly increasing incidence of HIV, multi-level strategies should be adopted to concurrently address the structural inequities and psychosocial syndemics faced by PLHIV.
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spelling pubmed-71433612020-04-14 Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV Chan, Randolph C. H. Operario, Don Mak, Winnie W. S. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the context of HIV-related stigma and discrimination, people living with HIV (PLHIV) might be vulnerable to a ‘syndemic’ of co-occurring psychosocial challenges that can affect sexual behavior. The present study examined how HIV-related discrimination contributes to co-occurring psychosocial syndemic problems and results in inconsistent condom use among PLHIV in Hong Kong. Two-hundred and ninety-one PLHIV were recruited to complete a self-report questionnaire. More than one-quarter of the sample experienced two or more psychosocial syndemic problems, and 74.1% of the participants who had sex with steady partners reported inconsistent condom use over the past three months. The results indicated that HIV-related discrimination was positively predictive of the number of psychosocial syndemic problems. HIV-related discrimination and psychosocial syndemics were associated with increased odds of inconsistent condom use with steady partners (AOR = 5.40 and AOR = 3.09 respectively). Findings from structural equation modeling showed that psychosocial syndemics mediated the effect of HIV-related discrimination on condom use consistency with steady partners. PLHIV in Hong Kong suffered from the syndemic effects of stigma, social isolation, and poor mental health, which rendered them vulnerable to condomless sex. In order to curb the rapidly increasing incidence of HIV, multi-level strategies should be adopted to concurrently address the structural inequities and psychosocial syndemics faced by PLHIV. MDPI 2020-03-16 2020-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7143361/ /pubmed/32187991 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061924 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chan, Randolph C. H.
Operario, Don
Mak, Winnie W. S.
Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title_full Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title_fullStr Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title_full_unstemmed Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title_short Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV
title_sort effects of hiv-related discrimination on psychosocial syndemics and sexual risk behavior among people living with hiv
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7143361/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32187991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061924
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