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Locating the Risk: Using Participatory Mapping to Contextualize Perceived HIV Risk across Geography and Social Networks among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Deep South

Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: HIV incidence among African American (AA) young men who have sex with men (YMSM) has remained stable even though they made up the largest number of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) in 2017. HIV spreads at increased rates in dense sexual networks. Identifying the location of risk behaviors "activity spaces" could inform geographically circumscribed HIV prevention interventions. Utilizing the modified social ecological model we completed five semi-structured focus groups incorporating a modified social mapping technique, based on Singer et al.'s approach. Participants included 27 AA YMSM. Focus groups explored how and where HIV transmission happens in Jackson, Mississippi. Result themes included: 1) location of sexual behaviors, 2) knowledge of geographic hotspots of HIV infection in Jackson, and 3) traveling to meet partners: at home and away. HIV transmission or "activity spaces" may be occurring outside identified HIV hot spots. Mixed geospatial and qualitative methods offered a comprehensive assessment of where HIV transmission occurs, and suggests that geographically circumscribed interventions may need to focus on where individuals living with HIV reside and in specific geographic locations where they engage in behaviors that raise their HIV acquisition risks.
DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2021.1906397
Authors: Trisha Arnold, Thomas J. Stopka, Courtney E. S. Gomillia, Matthew Murphy, Kendra Johnson, Philip A. Chan, Lynne Klasko-Foster, Brooke Rogers, Jorge H. Soler, Mauda L. Monger, Erin Jacque, Cassandra Sutten Coats, Tiara C. Willie, Adedotun Ogunbajo, Leandro Mena, Amy Nunn
Institutions: Brown University, Tufts University, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mississippi College, Mississippi State Department of Health, Miriam Hospital, New York Blood Center, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Open Access status: green
Awards: PrEP uptake, adherence & retention for African American MSM in Mississippi, Columbia Collaborative HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), Child/Adolescent/Young Adult HIV Research Training, Brown University Community and Clinical Research Training Program, Columbia Collaborative HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, Developing and testing a telehealth intervention to increase HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake and adherence
OpenAlex ID: W3140988924
FWCI: 0.396
Cites: 35
Cited by: 9
Related to: 10