University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, 246 Bloor St West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S1V4, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2019 May 28;19(1):651. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6985-9.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to threaten the health and wellbeing of millions in the United States and worldwide. Syndemic theory suggests that HIV/AIDS can cooccur with other afflictions. As close to 20% of US adults live with a mental health condition, it is critical to understand the correlation between HIV risk behaviors and mental health needs, as well as protective factors such as social support in intervening the association between mental distress and HIV risk behaviors. Furthermore, as past research has shown mixed results concerning the function of social support on HIV risks by gender, it is important to conduct a gender-specific analysis.
To assess the relationship between mental health needs, social support, and HIV risk behaviors, and to assess if social support can be a buffer, weakening the effect of mental health needs on HIV risk, in 2018, we analyzed representative, cross-sectional data from 2016 BRFSS collected from 33,705 individuals from four states in the United States, stratified by gender. Weighted logistic regression analyses, adjusted for age, race, marital status, education, and annual income, assessed the correlation between mental health needs, social support, and HIV risk behaviors. Furthermore, interaction analyses were performed to see if social support modifies the slope of mental health needs as a function of HIV risk behaviors.
For both genders, the odds of participating in HIV risk behaviors increase with mental health needs and decrease with the level of social support. Furthermore, social support mitigates the association between mental health needs and HIV risk behavior involvement for males, as males receiving high level of social support have least odds of HIV risk behaviors relative to males receiving low level of social support. Notably, for females, social support does not serve as a buffer against HIV risk behaviors when their mental health needs increase.
The study contributes to the knowledge base of HIV prevention and highlights the important role of mental health and social support against HIV risk behaviors when developing gender-specific prevention strategies.
艾滋病在美国和全球继续威胁着数百万人的健康和福祉。综合征理论表明，艾滋病毒/艾滋病可能与其他疾病同时发生。由于近 20%的美国成年人患有心理健康问题，因此了解艾滋病毒风险行为与心理健康需求之间的相关性，以及社会支持等保护因素在干预精神困扰与艾滋病毒风险行为之间的关联至关重要。此外，由于过去的研究表明社会支持对男性和女性的艾滋病毒风险的作用结果不一致，因此进行性别特异性分析很重要。
为了评估心理健康需求、社会支持与艾滋病毒风险行为之间的关系，并评估社会支持是否可以作为缓冲，从而减弱心理健康需求对艾滋病毒风险的影响，我们于 2018 年分析了来自美国四个州的 33705 名个体于 2016 年 BRFSS 的代表性横断面数据。按照性别分层。加权逻辑回归分析调整了年龄、种族、婚姻状况、教育程度和年收入，评估了心理健康需求、社会支持与艾滋病毒风险行为之间的相关性。此外，还进行了交互分析，以确定社会支持是否会改变心理健康需求作为艾滋病毒风险行为函数的斜率。
对于两种性别，参与艾滋病毒风险行为的可能性随着心理健康需求的增加而增加，随着社会支持水平的降低而降低。此外，社会支持减轻了心理健康需求与男性艾滋病毒风险行为之间的关联，因为与接受低水平社会支持的男性相比，接受高水平社会支持的男性发生艾滋病毒风险行为的可能性最小。值得注意的是，对于女性而言，当她们的心理健康需求增加时，社会支持并不能作为预防艾滋病毒风险行为的缓冲。
该研究为艾滋病毒预防知识库做出了贡献，并强调了在制定性别特异性预防策略时，心理健康和社会支持在预防艾滋病毒风险行为方面的重要作用。
