Risk factors for suicide among veterans living with and without HIV: a nested case-control study.

The rate of suicide among people with HIV (PWH) remains elevated compared to the general population. The aim of the study was to examine the association between a broad range of risk factors, HIV-specific risk factors, and suicide. We conducted a nested case-control study using data from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) between 2006 and 2015. The risk of suicide was estimated using conditional logistic regression and models were stratified by HIV status. Most risk factors associated with suicide were similar between PWH and people without HIV; these included affective disorders, use of benzodiazepines, and mental health treatment. Among PWH, HIV-specific risk factors were not associated with suicide. A multiplicative interaction was observed between a diagnosis of HIV and a previous suicide attempt. Among PWH, a high prevalence of psychiatric, substance use disorders and multimorbidity contribute to the risk of suicide.

RESUMEN: La tasa de suicidio entre las personas con VIH (PWH) sigue siendo elevada en comparación con la población general. El objetivo del estudio fue examinar la asociación entre un amplio rango de factores de riesgo, los riesgos específicos del VIH y el suicidio. Realizamos un estudio anidado de casos y controles usando datos del Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) entre 2006­2015. El riesgo de suicidio fue estimado mediante regresión logística condicional y los modelos se estratificaron por estado serológico. La mayoría de los factores de riesgo asociados con el suicidio fueron similares entre las PWH y las personas sin VIH; estos incluyeron trastornos afectivos, uso de benzodiazepinas y tratamiento de salud mental. Entre las PWH, los factores de riesgo específicos del VIH no se asociaron con el suicidio. Se observó una interacción multiplicativa entre un diagnóstico de VIH y un intento de suicidio previo. Entre las PWH, una alta prevalencia de trastornos psiquiátricos, por consumo de sustancias y multimorbilidad contribuyen al riesgo de suicidio.

Genome-wide association study reveals genetic variants associated with HIV-1C infection in a Botswana study population.

Although there have been many studies of gene variant association with different stages of HIV/AIDS progression in United States and European cohorts, few gene-association studies have assessed genic determinants in sub-Saharan African populations, which have the highest density of HIV infections worldwide. We carried out genome-wide association studies on 766 study participants at risk for HIV-1 subtype C (HIV-1C) infection in Botswana. Three gene associations (AP3B1, PTPRA, and NEO1) were shown to have significant association with HIV-1C acquisition. Each gene association was replicated within Botswana or in the United States-African American or United States-European American AIDS cohorts or in both. Each associated gene has a prior reported influence on HIV/AIDS pathogenesis. Thirteen previously discovered AIDS restriction genes were further replicated in the Botswana cohorts, extending our confidence in these prior AIDS restriction gene reports. This work presents an early step toward the identification of genetic variants associated with and affecting HIV acquisition or AIDS progression in the understudied HIV-1C afflicted Botswana population.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Medicare Beneficiaries with and Without Cancer History: A US Population-based Study.

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Medicare beneficiaries is critical for increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the US. This study aimed to estimate and compare the vaccine hesitancy rate among community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries with and without cancer history, also to investigate factors associated with vaccine hesitancy during the first four months after COVID-19 vaccine became available. We used population-based, cross-sectional data on 3,034 community-living Medicare beneficiaries from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey COVID-19 Winter 2021 Supplement. Sample weights were applied to account for the complex survey design with results generalizable to 16.4 million Medicare beneficiaries. Weighted multivariable logistic regression model was conducted to investigate the association between cancer history and vaccine hesitancy adjusting for covariates. A total of 39.6% were hesitant about getting COVID-19 vaccine. Those with cancer history were significantly less likely to be hesitant to get vaccinated than those without cancer history (adjusted odds ratio = 0.80, 95% confidence interval: 0.64, 0.99, p = .050). The most common reason for being hesitant to get COVID-19 vaccine was that the vaccine could have side effects or was viewed as not safe (19.2%), followed by not trusting what government says about vaccine (11.4%). Those with cancer history were more likely to report ongoing health conditions, lack of recommendation from a doctor, and doctor recommending against COVID-19 vaccination as reasons for not getting the vaccine compared to participants without cancer history. Increasing the confidence and knowledge about vaccine benefits among high-risk and more hesitant individuals are urgently needed to increase the vaccine uptake.

Associations Between COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Socio-Spatial Factors in NYC Transit Workers 50 Years and Older.

This analysis investigates how age, race/ethnicity, and geographic location contributed to vaccine hesitancy in a sample of 645 New York City (NYC) Transport Workers Union (TWU), Local 100 members surveyed in August 2020. Union members ages 50+ were 46% less likely to be vaccine hesitant than their younger counterparts (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.42, 0.97). Non-Whites (OR 3.95; 95% 2.44, 6.39) and those who did not report their race (OR 3.10; 95% CI 1.87, 5.12) were significantly more likely to be vaccine hesitant than Whites. Those who were not concerned about contracting COVID-19 in the community had 1.83 greater odds (95% CI 1.12, 2.98) of being vaccine hesitant than those who were concerned. Older respondents tended to reside in Queens while vaccine hesitant and non-White respondents were clustered in Brooklyn. General trends observed in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy persist in a population of high risk, non-healthcare essential workers.

The Revolution Will Be Hard to Evaluate: How Co-Occurring Policy Changes Affect Research on the Health Effects of Social Policies.

Extensive empirical health research leverages variation in the timing and location of policy changes as quasi-experiments. Multiple social policies may be adopted simultaneously in the same locations, creating co-occurrence that must be addressed analytically for valid inferences. The pervasiveness and consequences of co-occurring policies have received limited attention. We analyzed a systematic sample of 13 social policy databases covering diverse domains including poverty, paid family leave, and tobacco use. We quantified policy co-occurrence in each database as the fraction of variation in each policy measure across different jurisdictions and times that could be explained by covariation with other policies. We used simulations to estimate the ratio of the variance of effect estimates under the observed policy co-occurrence to variance if policies were independent. Policy co-occurrence ranged from very high for state-level cannabis policies to low for country-level sexual minority-rights policies. For 65% of policies, greater than 90% of the place-time variation was explained by other policies. Policy co-occurrence increased the variance of effect estimates by a median of 57-fold. Co-occurring policies are common and pose a major methodological challenge to rigorously evaluating health effects of individual social policies. When uncontrolled, co-occurring policies confound one another, and when controlled, resulting positivity violations may substantially inflate the variance of estimated effects. Tools to enhance validity and precision for evaluating co-occurring policies are needed.

What to Do When Everything Happens at Once: Analytic Approaches to Estimate the Health Effects of Co-Occurring Social Policies.

Social policies have great potential to improve population health and reduce health disparities. Increasingly, those doing empirical research have sought to quantify the health effects of social policies by exploiting variation in the timing of policy changes across places. Multiple social policies are often adopted simultaneously or in close succession in the same locations, creating co-occurrence that must be handled analytically for valid inferences. Although this is a substantial methodological challenge for researchers aiming to isolate social policy effects, only in a limited number of studies have researchers systematically considered analytic solutions within a causal framework or assessed whether these solutions are being adopted. We designated 7 analytic solutions to policy co-occurrence, including efforts to disentangle individual policy effects and efforts to estimate the combined effects of co-occurring policies. We used an existing systematic review of social policies and health to evaluate how often policy co-occurrence is identified as a threat to validity and how often each analytic solution is applied in practice. Of the 55 studies, only in 17 (31%) did authors report checking for any co-occurring policies, although in 36 studies (67%), at least 1 approach was used that helps address policy co-occurrence. The most common approaches were adjusting for measures of co-occurring policies; defining the outcome on subpopulations likely to be affected by the policy of interest (but not other co-occurring policies); and selecting a less-correlated measure of policy exposure. As health research increasingly focuses on policy changes, we must systematically assess policy co-occurrence and apply analytic solutions to strengthen studies on the health effects of social policies.

A Systematic Review of Risk Factors for Suicide Among Persons Living with HIV (1996-2020).

Persons living with HIV (PWH) are at elevated risk for suicide. We conducted a systematic literature review following PRISMA-P guidelines to examine risk factors associated with suicide as a cause of morbidity among PWH. We searched six electronic databases using search terms (suicide, suicide attempt, self-harm, self-injurious behavior, HIV, AIDS, PWH). We focused on factors that were specific to HIV infection (CD4 count, HIV-1 RNA, and antiretroviral therapy [ART]). The initial search yielded N = 2657 studies. Eligible studies included suicide as an outcome, quantitative study design, and publication in peer-reviewed journals from 1996 through 2020. Fourteen studies met inclusion criteria. PWH share risk factors for suicide found in the general population: psychiatric illness, previous suicide attempt, drug and alcohol misuse. PWH also have HIV-specific risk factors for suicide. HIV diagnosis in the past two years and transmission related to injection drug use were associated with increased risk; HIV-1 RNA, ART, and AIDS-defining illness were not.

RESUMEN: Las personas viviendo con VIH (PVV) tienen riesgo elevado de suicidio. Realizamos un examen sistemático de la bibliografía, siguiendo las pautas PRISMA-P para examinar los factores de riesgo asociados con suicidio como la causa de morbilidad entre PVV. Realizamos búsquedas en seis bases de datos electrónicas mediante el uso de términos de búsqueda (suicidio, intento de suicidio, autolesiones, comportamiento autolesivo, VIH, AIDS). Nos hemos centrado en factores que eran específicos de la infección por VIH (recuento de CD4, ARN del VIH-1 y la terapia antirretroviral). La búsqueda inicial arrojó N = 2657 estudios. Los estudios seleccionados según criterio incluyeron muerte por suicidio, que el diseño del estudio fuera cuantitativo, y la publicación haya sido entre 1996 y 2020. 14 estudios cumplieron estos criterios de inclusión para el estudio. PVV comparten los mismos factores de riesgo de suicidio que se encuentran en la población general: enfermedad psiquiátrica, intento previo de suicidio, abuso de drogas y alcohol. PVV también poseen factores de riesgo de suicidio propios del VIH. El diagnóstico de VIH en los últimos dos años y la transmisión relacionada con el uso de drogas inyectables se asociaron con un mayor riesgo; mientras que el ARN del VIH-1, la terapia antirretroviral y las enfermedades definidas del SIDA no fueron asociadas con un mayor riesgo de suicidio.

Preferences for Long-Acting and Alternative Modalities for PrEP among Military Men Who Have Sex with Men: Segmentation Results of an Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis Study.

The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention within the U.S. military is low. Implementing preference-based alternative modalities of PrEP delivery, however, can be an innovative strategy to address the specific barriers to PrEP uptake among military MSM. We sought to identify population-based, segment-specific preferences for longer-acting and alternative PrEP delivery modalities to guide patient-centered strategies to optimize uptake within military-serving healthcare systems. HIV-negative military men who have sex with men (MSM) completed an anonymous, adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) analysis survey consisting of five key attributes of interest (dosing method, provider type, visit location, lab work evaluation location, and dispensing venue). Relative importance and part-worth utility scores were generated using Hierarchical Bayes (HB) estimation, and cluster ensemble analysis grouped participants into "phenotype" segments by preference similarity. The randomized first-choice model was then used to examine changes in program interest rates among segments through market simulation. The 429 participants were segmented into five preference groups. The dosing method attribute was found to be the most important to nearly all segments. Simulations revealed that PrEP program interest among two segments with low interest levels increased when smartphone, civilian-based, and long-acting injectable PrEP options were involved. Findings also suggested a need for clinics to be responsive and sensitive to sexual practices, risk perception, and functional PrEP knowledge. Responsiveness to segment-specific preferences in the design of military PrEP programs and acting on the importance of clinical relationships within the context of PrEP engagement within a military setting may contribute to increasing PrEP uptake.

Confidence and Hesitancy During the Early Roll-out of COVID-19 Vaccines Among Black, Hispanic, and Undocumented Immigrant Communities: a Review.

Black and Hispanic Americans have been hardest hit with COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, yet during the first several months of vaccine roll-out they had the lowest level of vaccine uptake. Primarily, our research on vaccine hesitancy focused on skepticism around the vaccine itself and its roll-out. Our search strategy used PUBMED and Google with a prescribed set of definitions and search terms for two reasons: there were limited peer-reviewed studies during early period of roll-out and real-time perspectives were crucially needed. Literature searches occurred in April 2021and covered September 2020-April 2021. Analyses included expert opinion, survey results and qualitative summaries. Overall, for the general U.S. population, there was considerable hesitancy initially that remained high during the early roll-out. The general population expressed concerns over the speed of vaccine development ("warp speed"), confidence in the competence of government being involved in the development of vaccines and general mistrust of government. Among Black and Hispanic Americans, hesitancy was further expressed as mistrust in the medical establishment that was related to past and current medical mistreatment. Undocumented immigrants worried about access to insurance and possible deportation. These results on confidence in the vaccine early during vaccine roll-out suggest diverse reasons that influence a person's decision to vaccinate or not. Additional barriers to vaccine uptake include complacency and access. To ensure health equity, particularly to address disparities in morbidity and mortality, vaccine hesitancy needs to be acknowledged and addressed as COVID-19 vaccine roll-out continues, and these observations calls for conscious planning to address these issues early with future health crises.

Strategies That Promote Equity in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake for Black Communities: a Review.

Black communities have had a high burden of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and death, yet rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Blacks lag behind other demographic groups. This has been due in part to vaccine hesitancy and multi-level issues around access to COVID-19 vaccines. Effective strategies to promote vaccine uptake among Black communities are needed. To perform a rapid review covering December 2020-August 2021, our search strategy used PubMed, Google, and print media with a prescribed set of definitions and search terms for two reasons: there were limited peer-reviewed studies during the early period of vaccine roll-out and real-time perspectives were crucially needed. Analyses included expert opinion, descriptions of implemented projects, and project outcomes. The strategies described in these reports largely converged into three categories: (a) addressing mistrust, (b) combatting misinformation, and (c) improving access to COVID-19 vaccines. When working to reduce hesitancy, it is important to consider messaging content, messengers, and location. To address mistrust, reports detailed the importance of communicating through trusted channels, validating the real, history- and experience-based reasons why people may be hesitant to establish common ground, and addressing racism embedded within the healthcare system. To combat misinformation, strategies included dispelling myths and answering questions through town halls and culturally intelligent outreach. Black physicians and clinicians are considered trusted messengers and partnering with community leaders such as pastors can help to reach more people. The settings of vaccination sites should be convenient and trusted such as churches, barbershops, and community sites. While a number of individual and combination efforts have been developed and implemented, data that disentangle components that are the most effective are sparse. This rapid review provides a basis for developing strategic implementation to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake in this ongoing pandemic and planning to promote health equity for future bio-events and health crises.

Strategies that Promote Equity in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake for Undocumented Immigrants: A Review.

There has been a dearth of reports that examine the effect of immigration status on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. While intention to be vaccinated has been higher among adults in immigrant families than non-immigrant adults, uptake of the vaccine has been lower among immigrants and especially those who are undocumented. Concerns raised by immigrants usually centered on the lack of access to information, language barriers, conflicts between work and clinic hours, and fears over their precarious status in the U.S. To perform a rapid review, our time frame was December 2020 through August 2021. Our search strategy used the PUBMED and Google search engines with a prescribed set of definitions and search terms for two reasons: there were limited peer-reviewed studies during the early period of roll-out and real-time perspectives were crucially needed. Strategies used to promote equity include the use of trusted leaders as well as direct communication styles. Other strategies centered informational messaging from government agencies and the medical community, with a strong emphasis on coalescing broad engagement of the community and being responsive to language and cultural needs. In addition to communication and messaging to educate about COVID-19 vaccines, another important aspect of COVID-19 vaccine uptake was overcoming multiple obstacles that affect ease of access. This report suggests that vaccine uptake, and more generally pandemic response, in vulnerable communities may be better able to launch when they build on existing, trusted, culturally intelligent community-based organizations and local sociocultural processes. These organizations need continued support to contribute to population health equity in emerging health crises.

Using nominal group technique to identify barriers and facilitators to preventing HIV using combination same-day pre-exposure prophylaxis and medications for opioid use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Preventing HIV transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID) is a key element of the US Ending the HIV Epidemic strategy and includes both pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). While both lead to decreases in HIV transmission, MOUD has other social and health benefits; meanwhile, PrEP has additional HIV prevention advantages from sexual risk and the injection of stimulants. However, these medications are often prescribed in different settings and require multiple visits before initiation. Strategies to integrate these services (i.e., co-prescription) and offer same-day prescriptions may reduce demands on patients who could benefit from them. METHODS: Nominal group technique, a consensus method that rapidly generates and ranks responses, was used to ascertain barriers and solutions for same-day delivery of PrEP and MOUD as an integrated approach among PWID (n = 14) and clinical (n = 9) stakeholders. The qualitative portion of the discussion generated themes for analysis, and the ranks of the proposed barriers and solutions to the program are presented. RESULTS: The top three barriers among PWID to getting a same-day prescription for both PrEP and MOUD were (1) instability of insurance (e.g., insurance lapses); (2) access to a local prescriber; and (3) client-level implementation factors, such as lack of personal motivation. Among clinical stakeholders, the three greatest challenges were (1) time constraints on providers; (2) logistics (e.g., coordination between providers and labs); and (3) availability of providers who can prescribe both medications. Potential solutions identified by both stakeholders included pharmacy delivery of the medications, coordinated care between providers and health care systems (e.g., case management), and efficiencies in clinical care (e.g., clinical checklists), among others. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing and sustaining a combined PrEP and MOUD strategy will require co-training providers on both medications while creating efficiencies in systems of care and innovations that encourage and retain PWID in care. Pilot testing the co-prescribing of PrEP and MOUD with quality performance improvement is a step toward new practice models.

Eviction, Health Inequity, and the Spread of COVID-19: Housing Policy as a Primary Pandemic Mitigation Strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated catastrophic job loss, unprecedented unemployment rates, and severe economic hardship in renter households. As a result, housing precarity and the risk of eviction increased and worsened during the pandemic, especially among people of color and low-income populations. This paper considers the implications of this eviction crisis for health and health inequity, and the need for eviction prevention policies during the pandemic. Eviction and housing displacement are particularly threatening to individual and public health during a pandemic. Eviction is likely to increase COVID-19 infection rates because it results in overcrowded living environments, doubling up, transiency, limited access to healthcare, and a decreased ability to comply with pandemic mitigation strategies (e.g., social distancing, self-quarantine, and hygiene practices). Indeed, recent studies suggest that eviction may increase the spread of COVID-19 and that the absence or lifting of eviction moratoria may be associated with an increased rate of COVID-19 infection and death. Eviction is also a driver of health inequity as historic trends, and recent data demonstrate that people of color are more likely to face eviction and associated comorbidities. Black people have had less confidence in their ability to pay rent and are dying at 2.1 times the rate of non-Hispanic Whites. Indigenous Americans and Hispanic/Latinx people face an infection rate almost 3 times the rate of non-Hispanic whites. Disproportionate rates of both COVID-19 and eviction in communities of color compound negative health effects make eviction prevention a critical intervention to address racial health inequity. In light of the undisputed connection between eviction and health outcomes, eviction prevention, through moratoria and other supportive measures, is a key component of pandemic control strategies to mitigate COVID-19 spread and death.

Federal requirements for nursing homes to include certified nursing assistants in resident care planning and interdisciplinary teams: A policy analysis.

Starting in 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented the first phase of a 3-year multi-phase plan revising the manner in which nursing homes are regulated. In this revision, attention was placed on the importance of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) to resident care and the need to empower these frontline workers. Phase II mandates that CNAs be included as members of the nursing home interdisciplinary team that develops care plans for the resident that are person-centered and comprehensive and reviews and revises these care plans after each resident assessment. While these efforts are laudable, there are no direct guidelines for how to integrate CNAs in the interdisciplinary team. We recommend the inclusion of direct guidelines, in which this policy revision clarifies the expected contributions from CNAs, their responsibilities, their role as members of the interdisciplinary team, and the expected patterns of communication between CNAs and other members of the interdisciplinary team.

A Community Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Case Study in Protecting the Health and Human Rights of People Who Use Drugs.

Effective responses to a global pandemic require local action. In the face of a pandemic or similar emergencies, communities of people who use drugs face risks that result from their ongoing drug use, reduced ability to secure treatment for drug use and correlated maladies, lack of access to preventive hygiene, and the realities of homelessness, street-level policing, and criminal justice involvement. Herein, we document the efforts of a coalition of people who use drugs, advocates, service providers, and academics to implement solutions to reduce these risks at a municipal and state level focusing on New Haven and the State of Connecticut. This coalition identified the communities at risk: active users needing access to harm reduction services, persons in treatment needing access to their medications, the homeless and marginally housed needing improved hygiene, people engaged in sex work, and the incarcerated needing release from custody. The section describing each of the risks demonstrates how the coalition acted preemptively at early stages of the pandemic, ahead of official initiatives, to develop ameliorative risk reduction solutions. Outcomes discussed include instances in which obstacles were overcome or still remain.

Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements.

The informal settlements of the Global South are the least prepared for the pandemic of COVID-19 since basic needs such as water, toilets, sewers, drainage, waste collection, and secure and adequate housing are already in short supply or non-existent. Further, space constraints, violence, and overcrowding in slums make physical distancing and self-quarantine impractical, and the rapid spread of an infection highly likely. Residents of informal settlements are also economically vulnerable during any COVID-19 responses. Any responses to COVID-19 that do not recognize these realities will further jeopardize the survival of large segments of the urban population globally. Most top-down strategies to arrest an infectious disease will likely ignore the often-robust social groups and knowledge that already exist in many slums. Here, we offer a set of practice and policy suggestions that aim to (1) dampen the spread of COVID-19 based on the latest available science, (2) improve the likelihood of medical care for the urban poor whether or not they get infected, and (3) provide economic, social, and physical improvements and protections to the urban poor, including migrants, slum communities, and their residents, that can improve their long-term well-being. Immediate measures to protect residents of urban informal settlements, the homeless, those living in precarious settlements, and the entire population from COVID-19 include the following: (1) institute informal settlements/slum emergency planning committees in every urban informal settlement; (2) apply an immediate moratorium on evictions; (3) provide an immediate guarantee of payments to the poor; (4) immediately train and deploy community health workers; (5) immediately meet Sphere Humanitarian standards for water, sanitation, and hygiene; (6) provide immediate food assistance; (7) develop and implement a solid waste collection strategy; and (8) implement immediately a plan for mobility and health care. Lessons have been learned from earlier pandemics such as HIV and epidemics such as Ebola. They can be applied here. At the same time, the opportunity exists for public health, public administration, international aid, NGOs, and community groups to innovate beyond disaster response and move toward long-term plans.

Feasibility and acceptability of intensive, real-time biobehavioral data collection using ecological momentary assessment, salivary biomarkers, and accelerometers among middle-aged African Americans.

Perceived racial discrimination is linked to unhealthy behaviors and stress-related morbidities. A compelling body of research indicates that perceived racial discrimination may contribute to health disparities among African Americans (AAs). The purposes of this study were to describe the study protocol including data collection procedures and study measures and to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of intensive biobehavioral data collection using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), salivary biomarkers, and accelerometers over 7 days among middle-aged AAs with a goal of understanding the relationships between perceived racial discrimination and biobehavioral responses to stress. Twelve AA men and women participated in the feasibility/acceptability study. They completed surveys, anthropometrics, and received in-person training in EMA and saliva sample collection at baseline. Participants were asked to respond to the random prompt text message-based EMA five times a day, wear an accelerometer daily for 7 days, and to self-collect saliva samples four times a day for 4 consecutive days. The EMA surveys included perceived racial discrimination, affective states, lifestyle behaviors, and social and physical contexts. The mean EMA response rate was 82.8%. All participants collected saliva samples four times a day for 4 consecutive days. About 83% of participants wore the accelerometer on the hip 6 out of 7 days. Despite the perception that the intensive nature of assessments would result in high participant burden, the acceptability of the study procedures was uniformly favorable.

Durable HIV Suppression Among People Who Inject Drugs From a Community-Based Cohort Study in Baltimore, Maryland, 1997-2017.

People who inject drugs (PWID) face disparities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment outcomes and may be less likely to achieve durable viral suppression. We characterized transitions into and out of viral suppression from 1997 to 2017 in a long-standing community-based cohort study of PWID, the AIDS Link to Intravenous Experience (ALIVE) Study, analyzing HIV-positive participants who had made a study visit in or after 1997. We defined the probabilities of transitioning between 4 states: 1) suppressed, 2) detectable, 3) lost to follow-up, and 4) deceased. We used multinomial logistic regression analysis to examine factors associated with transition probabilities, with a focus on transitions from suppression to other states. Among 1,061 participants, the median age was 44 years, 32% were female, 93% were African-American, 59% had recently injected drugs, and 28% were virologically suppressed at baseline. Significant improvements in durable viral suppression were observed over time; however, death rates remained relatively stable. In adjusted analysis, injection drug use and homelessness were associated with increased virological rebound in earlier time periods, while only age and race were associated with virological rebound in 2012-2017. Opioid use was associated with an increased risk of death following suppression in 2012-2017. Despite significant improvements in durable viral suppression, subgroups of PWID may need additional efforts to maintain viral suppression and prevent premature mortality.

Social Network Structures in African American Churches: Implications for Health Promotion Programs.

The prevalence of obesity among African Americans is higher than among other racial/ethnic groups. African American churches hold a central role in promoting health in the community; yet, church-based interventions have had limited impact on obesity. While recent studies have described the influence of social networks on health behaviors, obesity interventions informed by social network analysis have been limited. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 281 African American men and women from three churches in northeast urban cities in the USA. Data were collected on sociodemographic and clinical factors and anthropometrics. Using a social network survey applying a name generator, we computed network level metrics. Exponential random graph models (ERGM) were performed to examine whether each structural property found in the empirical (observed) networks occurred more frequently than expected by chance by comparing the empirical networks to the randomly simulated networks. Overall, church friendship networks were sparse (low density). We also found that while friendship ties were more reciprocated between dyads in church networks, and there were more tendencies for clustering of friendships (significant positive transitive closure) than in random networks, other characteristics such as expansiveness (number of actors with a great number of friends) did not differ from what would be expected by chance in random networks. These data suggest that interventions with African American churches should not assume a unitary network through which a single intervention should be used.