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Higher rates of HIV in US black gay men may be due to smaller choice of partners and more age mixing
Gus Cairns, 2013-05-18 08:20:00
Limited partner choice, wider age gaps between partners, and mistaken beliefs about HIV status in regular partners are all driving the substantially higher rates of HIV in US black gay men relative to other ethnicities, a recent study suggests.
The study also found that higher rates of HIV in black gay men were not due to higher HIV risk behaviours – indeed it found, as some other studies have done, considerably lower overall rates of unprotected sex in black men than in others.
It also found, however, that black gay men were significantly more likely to have partners who were considerably younger or older than they were.
Other studies have found this too. What this study adds is that it found that interactions of risk factors, rather than single risk factors, were the most crucial determinants of higher HIV risk in black men. For instance, while black men were less likely to have unprotected sex than other ethnicities, they were more likely to drop condom use once a relationship became long term.
Similarly, while older non-black gay men were significantly more likely to use condoms if their partners were older than they were, in black men the pattern was the opposite: younger black gay men were less likely to use condoms with significantly older partners.
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