Typology of drug use in United Kingdom men who have sex with men and associations with socio-sexual characteristics

Melendez-Torres, Gerardo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9823-4790, Bourne, Adam, Reid, David, Hickson, Ford, Bonell, Chris and Weatherburn, Peter 2018. Typology of drug use in United Kingdom men who have sex with men and associations with socio-sexual characteristics. International Journal of Drug Policy 55 , pp. 159-164. 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.01.007

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (176kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background Analysis of specific drug use patterns in men who have sex with men (MSM) is important in targeting HIV prevention and harm reduction interventions and in developing a fuller picture of drug use in context beyond consideration of use of specific drugs in isolation. Objectives We sought to develop a typology of recent drug use in MSM, and to explore how distribution of MSM across the classes in this typology differs by socio-sexual characteristics. Methods We examined last-year drug use reported by 16,814 MSM as part of a cross-sectional, internet-based survey of MSM living in the UK for which data were collected in late summer 2014. We tested models with between two and six classes for types of specific drug use, and related socio-sexual covariates to the classes in the best model using multinomial regression. Results Our five-class model described a range of drug use patterns, including minimal users, low-threshold users, old-skool users, chemsex-plus users and diverse users. MSM identifying as gay were more likely to not be minimal users. HIV-positive MSM were more likely to be chemsex-plus users than HIV-negative MSM. Number and type of non-steady partners, ethnicity and education were each related to class membership, though trends were complex. Conclusions Findings from associations between correlates and latent classes suggest avenues for service development beyond current attention to opiates or chemsex drugs. Our findings draw attention to heterogeneity in drug use patterns in MSM beyond what current discourse on chemsex drugs would suggest.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0955-3959
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 April 2018
Date of Acceptance:	6 January 2018
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2024 20:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/110789

Citation Data

Cited 23 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item