HIV Strikes Black Gay Men More, Despite Safer Behaviors

THURSDAY, Dec. 6, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Young black gay men are 16 times more likely to have HIV than whites, even though they have fewer partners, have less unsafe sex, and get tested for HIV more often, a new study shows.

"Our study illuminates how HIV disparities emerge from complex social and sexual networks and inequalities in access to medical care for those who are HIV-positive," said senior study author Brian Mustanski. He is director of the Northwestern Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

"Their social and sexual networks are more dense and interconnected, which from an infectious disease standpoint makes infections transmitted more efficiently through the group," Mustanski explained in a university news release.

"That, coupled with the higher HIV prevalence in the population, means any sexual act has a higher chance of HIV transmission," he added.

If this trend continues, 1 out of every 2 black gay men will become infected with HIV at some point in life, compared to 1 in 5 Hispanic gay men and 1 in 11 white gay men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 1,000 gay men, aged 16 to 29, in Chicago.

Among their other findings: black gay men were less likely to have close relationships with their sexual partners, more likely to have hazardous marijuana use, and more likely to have experienced more stigma, trauma and childhood sexual abuse. White gay men were more likely to have alcohol problems.

The study was published Dec. 4 in the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on HIV/AIDS.