Social Network Characteristics Of Men Who Have Sex With Men In Guangzhou And Its Relationship With HIV Transmission

BackgroundThe prevalence rate of HIV infection among MSM in China and the world increased year by year,even through the HIV-related interventions have been strengthened.The most important reason is that the social characteristic of MSM which is different from ordinary people caused the the HIV interventions be ineffective.It is difficult to comprehensively explore the characteristic of HIV epidemic for any research of single disciplinary.Therefore,it is necessary for a multi-disciplinary perspective to comprehansively explore the social intercourse characteristics and their implications for prevention and control of HIV among MSM in China.Social network analysis is an interdisciplinary approach,it has been applied in public health researches in recently years,and it has been proved that social and sexual contact network among MSM play an important role in understanding the transmission of HIV.But most domestic reaearches have focused on the description of the basic characterstics of social networks,have not explored the social relationship and construction which are more important for understanding HIV transimission.ObjectiveThis study aimed to analysis the characteristics of egocentric networks and its influence on HIV-related behaviors and their implications for prevention and control of HIV among MSM through Social Network Analysis and epidemiology;Based on gene distance,to analysis the relationship between the constructure characteristics of whole network among MSM who were HIV infenctors and HIV transimission.MethodsData collection was conducted in Guangzhou from November 2016 to May 2017 through cross-sectional study.Participants were recruited from the voluntary counseling and testing services(VCT)provided by nongovernmental organizations(NGOs)and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)to MSM.Data were collected by nomination generation and nomination interpretation.Questionnaire contants include two parts:the first one concerned about the social tie,and the second one was about the Background characteristics of respondents and their sexual partners.HIV transmission network was constructed on the base of gene distance.All statistical analyses were conducted by SAS V.9.4,all structure characteristics of social network were analyzed by UCINET6.0.ResultsThe sample included 1073 respondents who nominated 4301 partners in total.The older age were not associated with the total demographic similarity between MSM partners,AOR and CI were 0.57(0.41-0.80)?0.34(0.20-0.57)recpectively.Unmarried MSM were associated with the total demographic similarity between MSM partners,AOR and CI were 3.34(2.32-4.81).The highest score of social ties was 30,the lowest score of social ties was 6.After adjusted,Partners who has high similarity(AOR=1.64,95%CI:1.25-2.16)of education experience was associated with strong social ties.MSM who were 31-50 years old were more likely to be"bridge people".Assortative mixing with age(AOR=0.60,95%Cl:0.50-0.71),income(AOR=0.79,95%CI:0.67-0.93)and marital status(AOR=0.76,95%CI:0.66-0.89)were protective factors against sexual behavior,strong social ties(AOR=1.18,95%Cl:1.03-1.35)was associated with sexual behavior.Strong social ties(AOR=1.35,95%CI:1.11-1.65)was associated with UAI.After adjusted,the bigger size of ego-centric sexual network(AOR=168,95%Cl:1.07-2.65)and ego-centric risk sexual network(AOR=1.87,95%Cl:1.06-3.31)were associated with HIV infection.93 HIV positive MSM have been detected,a total of 84 pol gene sequences were amplified,and 100 pol gene sequences which were belonged to MSM who were detected in 2015 were provided by Guangzhou CDC.Of recently HIV-infected MSM(N=184),40.76%were connected by?1 putative transmission link to others in the network.The maximum of the point centrality,relative betweenness centrality,eigenvector centrality was 23,0.0087,0.0353 respetively.There were 14 2-cliques,the largest number of members was 24,and the minimum number of members was 3,a large number of shared members existed between different cliques,there were 4 big social circles.30 years old and above(AOR=8.62,95%Cl:1.41-52.82)prefer to form bigger subgroups.There were two "key nodes" who were older MSM.There were 17 Lambda sets,7 "key nodes" who were located in the central of the subgroup have been detected,they were older MSM;there was an independent set which contained 4 members who connected with each other,they were younger MSM.ConclusionThe characteristics of social networks among MSM had important influence on HIV related behaviors:during the social intercourse,MSM prefered to concern about the demographic similarities,the partners were the most similar in education.The social ties between partners were mainly related to weak ties,education experience was associated with the strength of social ties.Sex partners were likely to concern about their demographic similarities,but the demographic similarities were not as important as social ties during UAI.MSM with different egocentric networks had various degree of risk of HIV infection,the social support came from network members who wre not sex partners could reduce the risk of HIV infection.The key nodes with higher score of point centrality were older MSM.There were many subgroups with different size,different degree of connection in the HIV transimission network among MSM.The spread of HIV among MSM was wide,older MSM were more likely to form bigger and more complicated transimission network.The key nodes with older age,bigger size of ego-centric social networks,low demographic similarities have played some important roles on HIV transimisson among MSM,it is important to find out them for HIV interventions.