Body Image and Self-Care in HIV-Infected MSM

Among men who have sex with men (MSM), the largest population living with HIV in the U.S., poor self-care behaviors occur within the context of intertwined psychosocial problems, called syndemics. Important affected health behaviors include sexual transmission risk and adherence to antiretroviral therapy. In major cities, one in five MSM are living with HIV/AIDS, making these domestic MSM rates comparable to many endemic settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Because of antiretroviral therapy, HIV-infected individuals are living with the virus longer and the population of HIV-infected MSM continues to grow.

Study after study concludes that psychosocial problems/intertwined syndemics such as depression, substance abuse, and childhood sexual abuse significantly contribute to poor self-care behaviors such as sexual risk behaviors among MSM. Despite this, one reason for the modest effects of behavioral interventions for HIV is that they generally do not address the unique and varied psychosocial context of living with HIV for various risk groups. One example of a highly prevalent psychosocial problem among HIV-infected MSM is dissatisfaction with one's appearance. Body dissatisfaction is frequently syndemic to depression in HIV-infected MSM and is related to both sexual transmission risk and HAART non-adherence. Recent evidence indicates that MSM with high body dissatisfaction are 60% less likely to use condoms during anal intercourse compared to MSM with low body dissatisfaction.

The goal is to study multiple health behaviors in the context of psychosocial problems among HIV-infected and uninfected MSM. This includes designing and testing interventions aimed at reducing health problems (e.g., sexual risk, medication adherence, self-care) and co-occurring mental health disorders/syndemics. In this context, the current research plan, focusing on body dissatisfaction, depression, sexual risk reduction and HAART adherence provides one example of applying this goal to a discrete syndemic-oriented intervention development research project. This has relevance for both behavioral interventions for adherence and HIV risk behavior in MSM, which may be moderated by syndemics, but also has important application for the eventual roll-out of emerging biomedical prevention interventions. For example, HIV chemoprophylaxis (pre-exposure prophylaxis; PrEP) has recently been shown to reduce HIV transmission risk in high risk MSM. If this or other biomedical interventions are adequately disseminated to the highest risk MSM, the field will likely need plans for addressing mental health and, potentially, substance use, in the context of prescribing biomedical agents.