Association between ego-centric social network and HIV status of MSM young students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To identify the characteristics of social network and the association between ego-centric network and HIV status among young MSM Chinese students.@*Methods@#The cross-sectional study was conducted in Chongqing, Tianjin, Harbin and Xi an city from April to December 2017 and from March to May 2018. A mixed recruitment method of snowball sampling and RDS approach was used to recruit participants who reported information on social network and received HIV test. The Multiple Regression Analysis method was used to for the analysis of association between ego-centric social network and HIV status of men who have sex with men (MSM) among young students.@*Results@#The sample included 547 participants who nominated 1 088 social partners in total with average age of 13 to 60 years old. The MSM with different sexual orientation from their social members (aOR=0.38), embedded in a large network (aOR=0.63), with a high individual betweenness centrality (aOR=0.27) were at lower risk of HIV-positive status; while MSM who differed greatly in education level with their social members(aOR=1.60), existed in sexual networks(aOR=1.41), existed in the “risky networks” (aOR=1.88) , with high network density (aOR=1.91) and a high individual degree (aOR=4.10) had higher risk of HIV-positive status(P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#MSM with great difference in education level from social members, existed in sexual networks, with a large network density and a high degree were exposed to higher risk of HIV-positive status.