Men who have sex with men: An approach to social network analysis.

BACKGROUND: Dating apps for men who have sex with men (MSM) have favored unprotected sexual encounters; other unsafe practices, including drug use, are widespread. No evidence is available from the perspective of the structure of their relationships, a personal aspect included in all nursing meta-paradigms. AIM: To study the structure of MSM networks through dating and contact applications and this relationship to risky sexual activities such as condom use, chemsex (sex while using drug), and group sex. DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study. SAMPLE: A total of 32 MSM participants from Madrid (Spain). MEASUREMENTS: Socio-demographic and structural variables with Social Network Analysis (SNA) metrics. Data on condom use, drug use during encounters, and group sex were included. RESULTS: Twenty-five percent of respondents practiced chemsex, and 75% of these used poppers. MSM with higher socioeconomic status participated in group sex sessions more frequently than those with lower socioeconomics. Within the network analysis, the relationships strong showed greater ease in having unprotected anal intercourse. CONCLUSION: SNA can be effective in the study of MSM sexual networks and their risk behaviors for community nurses to improve their interventions in sexual health promotion.

Social Network Analysis and Resilience in University Students: An Approach from Cohesiveness.

The Social Network Analysis offers a view of social phenomena based on interactions. The aim of this study is to compare social reality through the cohesion variable and analyse its relationship with the resilience of university students. This information is useful to work with the students academically and to optimise the properties of the network that have an influence in academic performance. This is a descriptive transversal study with 90 students from the first and third year of the Nursing Degree. Cohesion variables from the support and friendship networks and the level of resilience were gathered. The UCINET programme was used for network analysis and the SPSS programme for statistical analysis. The students' friendship and support networks show high intra-classroom cohesion although there are no differences between the support networks and friendship or minimal contact networks in both of the courses used for the study. The network cohesion indicators show less cohesion in the third year. No correlations were found between cohesion and resilience. Resilience does not appear to be an attribute related to cohesion or vice versa.