Substance use network characteristics and drug and alcohol use behaviors among young men who have sex with men (YMSM)

Janulis, Patrick; Birkett, Michelle; Phillips, Gregory; Mustanski, Brian

doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.10.003

Cited by 7 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Qualitative studies have suggested that MSM often introduce SDU and chemsex to their peers. Previous studies suggested that a higher number of psychoactive substance users in one’s social network was positively associated with substance use in various populations [ 35 - 37 ], including MSM [ 36 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Social Media on Sexualized Drug Use and Chemsex Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Observational Prospective Cohort Study

Wang

Yang

et al. 2020

J Med Internet Res

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Background Sexualized drug use (SDU; the use of any psychoactive substance before or during sexual intercourse) is prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM) and may aggravate the worsening HIV epidemic in this key population. Objective This observational prospective cohort study investigated factors predicting the occurrence of SDU within a 6-month follow-up period among a sample of MSM in Hong Kong. We hypothesized that perceptions related to SDU would mediate the association between the influence of social media/gay social networking apps and SDU during the follow-up period. Methods Participants were Chinese-speaking men in Hong Kong, China who had anal intercourse with at least one man in the past year. Among 600 participants who completed the baseline telephone survey, 407 (67.8%) completed another telephone survey 6 months later. Logistic regression models and path analysis were fitted. Results At Month 6, 6.9% (28/407) and 4.4% (18/407) of participants reported SDU and chemsex during the follow-up period. After adjustment for significant baseline background variables (use of pre-exposure prophylaxis; history of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections; anal intercourse with nonregular male sex partners, condomless anal intercourse with men, multiple male sex partnerships, and SDU at baseline), three constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were significantly associated with SDU during the follow-up period: (1) positive attitudes toward SDU (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.05-1.36), (2) perceived support for SDU from significant others (AOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.01-1.30), and (3) perceived behavioral control of refraining from SDU (AOR 0.76, 95% CI 0.59-0.98). Exposure to information supporting SDU on social media and gay social networking apps was also significantly associated with SDU (AOR 1.11, 95% CI 1.01-1.22). Bootstrapping analyses indicated that social media influence was indirectly associated with SDU through TPB-related perceptions of SDU (β=.04; B=.002, 95% CI 0.001-0.01). Conclusions Social media and gay social networking apps may be a major source of influence on MSM’s perceptions and actual behaviors related to SDU.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Social Media on Sexualized Drug Use and Chemsex Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Observational Prospective Cohort Study

Wang

Yang

et al. 2020

J Med Internet Res

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“…These differences in individual networks may directly impact HIV risk for Black MSM, as the combination of high density sexual connections, racial homophily, and high prevalence rates of HIV among Black MSM mean that HIV will be transmitted more rapidly throughout the network (Beyrer et al, 2012), multiplex relationships have been linked with higher HIV risk (Birkett et al, 2015a), and Black MSM may be more likely to encounter a UAI partner with HIV transmission potential (Rosenberg et al, 2012). Additionally, MSM with higher transitivity (i.e., connectedness) between substance use alters reported recent and more frequent drug use (Janulis, Birkett, Phillips, & Mustanski, 2015), illustrating how network differences were associated with individual risk behaviors.…”

Section: Unitmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Given that MSM who drink across multiple settings were more likely to engage in frequent heavy drinking and unprotected anal intercourse while intoxicated (Jones-Webb, Smolenski, Brady, Wilkerson, & Rosser, 2013) and that network members' substance use predicts individual patterns of substance use (Holloway, 2015;Janulis et al, 2015;Morgan et al, 2016), MSM who report more socially and spatially pervasive substance use may be important targets for intervention.…”

Section: Aim 1: Network As Risk Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race-Related Social Contextual Factors, Substance Use, and HIV Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men in Chicago

McConnell¹

2019

Preprint

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Black men who have sex with men (MSM), especially young MSM, are more likely to contract Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) than MSM of other races. However, Black MSM consistently report comparable or fewer individual risk behaviors than MSM of other races. Research thus far has largely targeted individual risk factors and has been unable to account for the mechanisms driving this racial disparity. In addition, although individual risk behaviors occur within particular risk environments, little research examining HIV racial disparities has acknowledged that substance use and other HIV risk behaviors are socially and spatially dependent. Emerging research with Black MSM documents racial/ethnic differences in the individual, venue, and neighborhood level networks of young men who have sex with men (YMSM). These findings suggest that although rates of drug use and other individual risk behaviors may be lower among Black YMSM than other racial/ethnic groups, their consequences may be different due to the nature of the risk environments experienced by these young men. The overall objective of this project was to contribute to knowledge about structural mechanisms (e.g., stigma, discrimination, and resource inequality) that shape risk environments, which in turn shape consequences of substance use and other HIV risk behaviors for YMSM of different races/ethnicities. However, quantitative data describing these social and spatial contexts (i.e., the structure of individual, venue, and neighborhood networks) has limited capacity to explore and explain these complex phenomena, and interpreting these data is problematic without the incorporation of the voices, lived experiences, and insights of YMSM themselves. Therefore, thisstudy used an innovative mixed methods approach to visualize and guide the interpretation of individual, venue, and neighborhood level networks captured within an existing NIH-funded cohort of YMSM. Using an explanatory sequential design, multilevel network and geospatial data were visualized (Phase 1) and subsequently used to guide interviews with YMSM (Phase 2). Grounded theory was used to analyze interview data, leading to a theory of mechanisms that shape HIV racial disparities in this population. The overall project had two aims: 1) demonstrate several mechanisms through networks at the individual, venue, and neighborhood levels form risk environments that shape substance use and HIV risk for White, Black, and Hispanic/Latino YMSM, and 2) demonstrate several structural mechanisms, such as stigma, discrimination, and resource inequality, that shape the individual, venue, and neighborhood level networks and risk environments of White, Black, and Hispanic/Latino YMSM.

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“…Drug use network density represented the average number of drug ties between alters who used drugs with the participant (i.e., ties to the participant were not included). This measure has been used in previous studies of drug and sexual networks [19,34] and was chosen as the measure of connectivity, in contrast to the traditional measure of egocentric network density, because it is less strongly correlated with network size and therefore limits collinearity between the measures of network size and density. Social network density represented the average number of social ties between alters who were close social ties to the participant (i.e., ties to the participant were not included).…”

Section: Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Barman-Adhikari et al [18] found strong associations between an individual's proximity to peer drug use and their own drug use behavior in a study of homeless youth. Similarly, a preliminary study found that an individual's drug use network density was associated with higher levels of drug and alcohol use [19]. Furthermore, one of the most common drug use behaviors in youth -marijuana use -has received less attention versus network correlates of injection drug risk behavior [20] or sexual risk behavior [16,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not getting high with a little help from your friends: Social versus drug network correlates of marijuana use among YMSM

Janulis

Birkett

Phillips

et al. 2019

Addictive Behaviors

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Substantial evidence has documented the importance of social connections in shaping health and drug use behaviors among adolescents and young adults. The current study extends previous research into the associations between network characteristics and drug use behavior among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) by 1) examining multiple network characteristics, 2) simultaneously assessing multiple network types (i.e., social and drug use), and 3) examining change in network characteristics and drug use behavior over time. Data for the current study comes from RADAR, a longitudinal cohort study of YMSM. Latent growth curve models examined the change in frequency of marijuana use across four observations and individual and network correlates of this change including: demographics, drug network size, drug network density, social network size, and social network density. Baseline frequency of marijuana use was positively associated with drug network size and density, while it was inversely related to social network size and density. In addition, increasing frequency of marijuana use was associated with increases in drug network size and density, while it was associated with decreases in social network size. These findings highlight the complexity of multiple network types (e.g., drug and social) and network structures (e.g., size and density) in understanding drug use behavior among YMSM. Furthermore, as changes in drug and social networks may be indicative of changes in marijuana use, peer relationships may be especially important in understanding an individual's trajectories of marijuana use.

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Substance use network characteristics and drug and alcohol use behaviors among young men who have sex with men (YMSM)

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

Influence of Social Media on Sexualized Drug Use and Chemsex Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Observational Prospective Cohort Study

Influence of Social Media on Sexualized Drug Use and Chemsex Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Observational Prospective Cohort Study

Race-Related Social Contextual Factors, Substance Use, and HIV Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men in Chicago

Not getting high with a little help from your friends: Social versus drug network correlates of marijuana use among YMSM

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