Sexual Stigma Patterns Among Nigerian Men Who Have Sex with Men and Their Link to HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevalence

• Published in: AIDS and behavior 2018-05, Vol.22 (5), p.1662-1670
• Main Authors: Rodriguez-Hart, Cristina, Musci, Rashelle, Nowak, Rebecca G., German, Danielle, Orazulike, Ifeanyi, Ononaku, Uchenna, Liu, Hongjie, Crowell, Trevor A., Baral, Stefan, Charurat, Man
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Adolescent; Adult; AIDS; Attrition; Cohort Studies; Disease transmission; Gays & lesbians; Health Psychology; HIV; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - psychology; Homosexuality, Male - ethnology; Homosexuality, Male - psychology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infectious Diseases; Latent Class Analysis; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Men who have sex with men; Mens health; Nigeria - epidemiology; Original Paper; Prejudice; Prevalence; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Sexual Behavior; Sexually transmitted diseases; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - epidemiology; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - psychology; Social Stigma; STD; Stigma; Structural equation modeling; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1090-7165; 1573-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10461-017-1982-4

Sexual stigma facilitates the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but little is known about stigma affecting Nigerian men who have sex with men (MSM). We assessed patterns of sexual stigma across Nigerian MSM and their relationship to HIV and STIs. Data were collected from the TRUST/RV368 Study, a prospective cohort of 1480 Nigerian MSM enrolled from March 2013 to February 2016 using respondent driven sampling. Structural equation modeling was utilized to assess the association between stigma classes and HIV and STI prevalence, adjusting for participants’ characteristics. A dose–response association was found between stigma class and HIV prevalence (27, 40, 55%, overall χ 2  p