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Seroadaptation among Men Who Have Sex with Men: Emerging Research Themes

  • Behavioral Aspects of HIV Management (RJ DiClemente and JL Brown, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Seroadaptation describes a diverse set of potentially harm-reducing behaviors that use HIV status to inform sexual decision making. Men who have sex with men (MSM) in many settings adopt these practices, but their effectiveness at preventing HIV transmission is debated. Past modeling studies have demonstrated that serosorting is only effective at preventing HIV transmission when most men accurately know their HIV status, but additional modeling is needed to address the effectiveness of broader seroadaptive behaviors. The types of information with which MSM make seroadaptive decisions is expanding to include viral load, treatment status, and HIV status based on home-use tests, and recent research has begun to examine the entire seroadaptive process, from an individual's intentions to seroadapt to their behaviors to their risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV and other STIs. More research is needed to craft clear public health messages about the risks and benefits of seroadaptive practices.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the NICHD (R00 HD057533) and the UW Center for AIDS Research Sociobehavioral and Prevention Research Core (P30 AI027757). Additional support was provided by a NICHD research infrastructure grant (5R24HD042828), to the UW Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. The authors would like to thank Christine Khosropour for support with the manuscript.

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Conflict of Interest

Susan Cassels declares that she has no conflict of interest. David A. Katz declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Susan Cassels

  2. Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Susan Cassels

  3. University of Washington, 325 9th Avenue, Box 359931, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA

    Susan Cassels

  4. Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    David A. Katz

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Correspondence to Susan Cassels.

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Cassels, S., Katz, D.A. Seroadaptation among Men Who Have Sex with Men: Emerging Research Themes. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 10, 305–313 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-013-0188-2

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