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Social Capital, Depressive Symptoms, and HIV Viral Suppression Among Young Black, Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV

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Abstract

Social capital, the sum of an individual’s resource-containing social network connections, has been proposed as a facilitator of successful HIV care engagement. We explored relationships between social capital, psychological covariates (depression, stigma and internalized homonegativity), and viral suppression in a sample of young Black gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (YB-GBMSM). We recruited 81 HIV-positive YB-GBMSM 18–24 years of age from a clinic setting. Participants completed a cross-sectional survey, and HIV-1 viral load (VL) measurements were extracted from the medical record. Sixty-five percent (65%) were virally suppressed (HIV-1 VL ≤ 40 copies/ml). Forty-seven percent (47%) had a positive depression screen. Depressive symptoms affected viral suppression differently in YB-GBMSM with lower vs. higher social capital (p = 0.046, test for statistical interaction between depression and social capital). The odds of viral suppression among YB-GBMSM with lower social capital was 93% lower among those with depressive symptoms (OR 0.07, p = 0.002); however, there was no association between depressive symptoms and viral suppression among those with higher social capital. Our results suggest that social capital may buffer the strong negative effects of depressive symptoms on clinical outcomes in YB-GBMSM living with HIV. In addition to treating depression, there is a role for interventions to augment social capital among YB-GBMSM living with HIV as a strategy for enhancing care engagement.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Center for AIDS Research at Emory University (P30AI050409) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U01 PS005112). We would like to also acknowledge our study participants for the time and effort of their thoughtful involvement in our study. We would also like to thank our excellent research assistants for their work on scale development, study recruitment and data entry: Candace Markley, Emily Grossniklaus, Berthine Njiemoun, Naomi David, and Brittani Carter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop 1518-002-7BB, 30322, Atlanta, GA, Georgia

    Sophia A. Hussen & Carlos del Rio

  2. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

    Sophia A. Hussen & Carlos del Rio

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia

    Kirk A. Easley & Neeta Shenvi

  4. Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia

    Justin C. Smith

  5. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Gary W. Harper

  6. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

    Andres F. Camacho-Gonzalez

  7. Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Rob Stephenson

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  1. Sophia A. Hussen
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  8. Carlos del Rio
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Correspondence to Sophia A. Hussen.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Emory IRB and Grady Research Oversight Committee) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Hussen, S.A., Easley, K.A., Smith, J.C. et al. Social Capital, Depressive Symptoms, and HIV Viral Suppression Among Young Black, Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV. AIDS Behav 22, 3024–3032 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2105-6

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