Contrasting the Perceived Severity of COVID-19 and HIV Infection in an Online Survey of Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men During the U.S. COVID-19 Epidemic

Abstract

While there is evidence of variations in the risk perceptions of COVID-19 and that they are linked to both engagement in health-protective behaviors and poor mental health outcomes, there has been a lack of attention to how individuals perceive the risk of COVID-19 relative to other infectious diseases. This paper examines the relative perceptions of the severity of COVID-19 and HIV among a sample of U.S. gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSMs). The “Love and Sex in the Time of COVID-19” survey was conducted online from April 2020 to May 2020. GBMSMs were recruited through paid banner advertisements featured on social networking platforms, resulting in a sample size of 696. The analysis considers differences in responses to two scales: the Perceived Severity of HIV Infection and the Perceived Severity of COVID-19 Infection. Participants perceived greater seriousness for HIV infection (mean 46.67, range 17–65) than for COVID-19 infection (mean 38.81, range 13–62). Some items reflecting more proximal impacts of infection (anxiety, loss of sleep, and impact on employment) were similar for HIV and COVID-19. Those aged over 25 and those who perceived higher prevalence of COVID-19 in the United States or their state were more likely to report COVID-19 as more severe than HIV. There is a need to develop nuanced public health messages for GBMSMs that convey the ongoing simultaneous health threats of both HIV and COVID-19.

Exploring the Social Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on People Living with HIV (PLHIV): A Scoping Review

“…Of the twenty studies, only twelve used samples of participants consisting entirely of PLHIV. Five studies focused on MSM as a cohort and included subsamples of men living with HIV (range 7.9-17.0% of participants) [19,22,[31][32][33]36]. The results of one study are reported across two articles [32,36].…”

“…Key editorials highlighted food insecurity and its potential association with other negative biomedical and psychosocial impacts including, non-adherence to ART, treatment interruptions and disruption to clinic visits [50,51]. Across the primary research, food insecurity was reported in six studies [19,27,28,31,32,36,45]. Santos and colleagues [19] found 20.0% of PLHIV in a global cohort study had cut or skipped meals completely, while around 40.0% of PLHIV from two US based studies experienced difficulty accessing food during the year [27,31].…”

“…Participants who had engaged in greater protective behaviours to mitigate risk of COVID-19 infection, such as avoiding or reducing social contact and physical distancing, also experienced difficulty accessing food [27]. Consequently, participants reported skipping meals during the ongoing pandemic or described challenges associated with buying food during the pandemic [31,32,36]. Poteat et al's [28] study, involving transgender women living with HIV in the US, found they were almost five times more likely to be food insecure than the general population.…”

“…Two research papers, that engaged a broad sample of MSM and included sub-samples of PLHIV, examined the impact of COVID-19 on sexual behaviour and reported changes in sexual behaviours, including avoiding close physical contact and reducing or ceasing sex with casual partners [31,33]. In contrast, Stephenson and colleagues [32,36] found MSM in a US survey reported an increase in the number of sexual partners during the COVID-19 pandemic, but PLHIV were more likely to report a decrease in the number of sexual partners.…”

Sexual health (excluding reproductive health, intimate partner violence and gender-based violence) and COVID-19: a scoping review

“…Three studies centred on SGM. [42][43][44] A Taiwanese cross-sectional observational quantitative study found that sexual minorities were more likely to demonstrate health anxiety with regard to COVID-19 compared with heterosexual individuals. 42 A crosssectional US study found that most MSM believed COVID-19 could be transmitted sexually.…”