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Psychosocial Correlates of HIV Testing Frequency Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Guangzhou, China

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Abstract

We examined sociodemographic and psychosocial factors associated with HIV testing patterns in the past 2 years among 492 HIV-negative men who have sex men (MSM) at an HIV testing center in Guangzhou, China. MSM who tested for HIV frequently were more likely to be older, reside in Guangzhou, and have higher monthly income. Compared with MSM who tested frequently, MSM who never tested were less likely to report that their sexual partner(s) had ever received HIV tests or that their good friends had ever received HIV tests, and were less likely to report having an HIV-positive gay friend or ever discussing HIV with sexual partners; they were more likely to report perceiving barriers to HIV testing. Compared with MSM who tested frequently, those who tested irregularly were less likely to report having HIV-positive gay friends or to disclose their sexual orientation to non-gay friends; reported greater barriers to HIV testing; and higher internalized homophobia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the amfAR GMT Program, which provided funding for the first author to receive training in HIV-related social and behavioral research at the University of Pittsburgh. We especially thank Michael Cowing, Kent Kozad, and Monica Coniglio at amfAR for their stewardship. The authors thank all the Staff of the Department of AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Lingnan Partner Community Support Center for their contribution in helping the data collection. We also feel grateful for voluntary participation of subjects in the study. Preliminary results informing this manuscript were presented in poster form at the Lancet-CAMS Summit (2017), an abstract of which has been published here: Cheng, W., Friedman, M. R., Egan, J. E., Liu, Q., Xu, H., & Stall, R. (2017). HIV-testing patterns and psycho-social factors associated with frequency of testing by men who have sex with men: implication for scaling up HIV testing in China. The Lancet, 390, S45.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and Medical Science and Technology Foundation of Guangdong Province (A2018459).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dermatology Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Weibin Cheng

  2. Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Weibin Cheng & Huifang Xu

  3. Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    James E. Egan, Ron Stall & Mackey R. Friedman

  4. Lingnan Partners Community Support Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Qi Liu

  5. 11th Floor, No. 2 Lujing Road, Guangzhou, 510085, China

    Weibin Cheng

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  1. Weibin Cheng
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Correspondence to Weibin Cheng.

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Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Boards of the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Pittsburgh (Protocol 15040542).

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Cheng, W., Egan, J.E., Liu, Q. et al. Psychosocial Correlates of HIV Testing Frequency Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Guangzhou, China. AIDS Behav 24, 363–372 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02431-w

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