Association of social determinants of health with self-rated health among Australian gay and bisexual men living with HIV

Bibliographic Data

ID19438845
AuthorsRachel Koelmeyer (0000-0002-5624-0623, The University of Melbourne), Dallas R English (0000-0001-7828-8188, The University of Melbourne), Anthony Smith (0000-0002-7756-5136), Anthony S Smith (0000-0002-7033-8010, La Trobe University), Jeffrey Grierson (0000-0003-1619-2054, La Trobe University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume26
Issue1
Pages65-74
Publication date2014-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAIDS Care (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-0121 • E-ISSN: 1360-0451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09540121.2013.793273
PMID23651416
OpenAlexW2024599347
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

Despite a vast improvement in the survival of people living with HIV (PLHIV) since the introduction of combination antiretroviral treatment (cART), little change in the self-rated health of PLHIV has been observed since the introduction of cART in Australia. Difficulties with attaining employment or achieving financial security have been noted as some of the key challenges still facing PLHIV in the post-cART era. As a result, we investigated the independent association of a number of key social determinants of health with self-rated health among HIV-positive gay and bisexual men in Australia. Data from two recent national, cross-sectional surveys of PLHIV (the HIV Futures 5 and 6 surveys) were used. Logistic regression was used to assess the independent association of ethnicity, region of residence, education level, employment status, after-tax income, experience of HIV-related discrimination, level of social support, relationship status and recent sexual activity with reporting good-excellent self-rated health, after adjusting for clinical factors and other social determinants of health. Multiple imputation was used to estimate missing data for variables with >5% missing data. Of the 1713 HIV-positive gay/bisexual men who responded to the HIV Futures 5 and 6 surveys, information on self-rated health was available for 99.3%. Close to three-quarters of these respondents (72.1%) reported their self-rated health as good or excellent; the remainder (27.9%) reported their self-rated health as poor or fair. In multivariable analysis involving 89.3% of respondents, being employed, reporting recent sexual activity, a greater number of sources of social support and a higher weekly after-tax income were found to be independently associated with reporting good-excellent self-rated health. Despite the inability of this study to detect causal associations, addressing barriers to employment and sexual activity, and mechanisms to increase social support, is likely to have positive health effects for PLHIV in Australia

Environmental health · Logistic regression · Population · Public health · Reproductive health · Residence · Self-rated health · Social determinants of health · Sociology · Demography · HIV-related health complications and treatments · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Gerontology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub