Correlates and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Bareback Sex among Men Who Have Sex with Men with Unknown or Negative HIV Serostatus

Men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly racial/ethnic minority MSM, are disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States and Texas. Bareback sex or condomless anal intercourse (CAI) can be a high HIV risk behavior. Despite this, a majority of MSM continues to engage in barebacking. Research suggests racial/ethnic differences in barebacking exist; however, these conclusions remain unclear due to insufficient sample sizes to compare racial/ethnic groups. 

Our cross-sectional correlational design explores barebacking correlates (substance use during sex, safe sex fatigue, and optimistic HIV treatment beliefs) within and between racial/ethnic groups among 366 MSM. Regression models are significant for Latino and African-American MSM alone and for all MSM combined, though not significant for European-American and Other Race/Ethnicity MSM alone. 

Our findings suggest motivations and behaviors underlying barebacking among MSM vary by racial/ethnic membership with clinical implications for informing culturally sensitive HIV interventions and prevention programs for target racial/ethnic groups.

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By:  Vosvick M1, Fritz S2, Henry D3, Prybutok V4, Sheu S5, Poe J5.

• 1Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311280, Denton, TX, 76203, USA. Mark.Vosvick@unt.edu.
• 2Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311280, Denton, TX, 76203, USA.
• 3Department of Anthropology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
• 4Department of Information Technology & Decision Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
• 5TB/HIV/STD Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX, USA. 
• AIDS Behav. 2016 Mar 16.

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