Behavioural and demographic correlates of undiagnosed HIV infection in a MSM sample recruited in 13 European cities

U. Marcus, Christiana Nöstlinger, Magda Rosińska, Nigel Sherriff, Lorenzo Gios, Sonia Dias, Ana Gama, I. Toskin, Ivailo Alexiev, Emilia Naseva, Susanne Schink, Massimo Mirandola

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Background
    Reducing the number of people with undiagnosed HIV infection is a major goal of HIV control and prevention efforts in Europe and elsewhere. We analysed data from a large multi-city European bio-behavioural survey conducted among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) for previously undiagnosed HIV infections, and aimed to characterise undiagnosed MSM who test less frequently than recommended.
    Methods
    Data on sexual behaviours and social characteristics of MSM with undiagnosed HIV infection from Sialon II, a bio-behavioural cross-sectional survey conducted in 13 European cities in 2013/2014, were compared with HIV-negative MSM. Based on reported HIV-testing patterns, we distinguished two subgroups: MSM with a negative HIV test result within 12 months prior to the study, i.e. undiagnosed incident infection, and HIV positive MSM with unknown onset of infection. Bivariate and multivariate associations of explanatory variables were analysed. Distinct multivariate multi-level random-intercept models were estimated for the entire group and both subgroups.
    Results
    Among 497 participants with HIV-reactive specimens, 234 (47.1%) were classified as previously diagnosed, 106 (21.3%) as incident, and 58 (11.7%) as unknown onset based on self-reported status and testing history. MSM with incident HIV infection were twice as likely (odds ratio (OR)= 2.22, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.17-4.21) to have used recreational substances during their last anal sex encounter and four times more likely (OR=3.94, 95%CI: 2.14-7.27) not to discuss their HIV status with the last anal sex partner(s). MSM with unknown onset of HIV infection were 3.6 times more likely (OR=3.61, 95%CI: 1.74-7.50) to report testing for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) during the last 12 months.
    Conclusions
    Approximately one third of the study participants who are living with HIV were unaware of their infection. Almost two-third (65%) of those with undiagnosed HIV appeared to have acquired the infection recently, emphasizing a need for more frequent testing. Men with the identified behavioural characteristics could be considered as primary target group for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to avoid HIV infection. The increased odds of those with unknown onset of HIV infection to have had an STI test in the past year strongly suggests a lost opportunity to offer HIV testing.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number368
    JournalBMC Infectious Diseases
    Volume18
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 6 Aug 2018

    Bibliographical note

    This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

    Keywords

    • HIV
    • Men having sex with men
    • Europe
    • biobehavioural survey
    • undiagnosed HIV infection

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