Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Short report
Reductions in access to HIV prevention and care services are associated with arrest and convictions in a global survey of men who have sex with men
  1. Glenn-Milo Santos1,2,
  2. Keletso Makofane3,
  3. Sonya Arreola3,
  4. Tri Do2,
  5. George Ayala3
    1. 1San Francisco Department of Public Health, Center for Public Health Research, San Francisco, California, USA
    2. 2Department of Community Health Systems, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
    3. 3The Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF), Oakland, California, USA
    1. Correspondence to Dr Glenn-Milo Santos, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Center for Public Health Research, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco CA 94102, USA; glenn-milo.santos{at}ucsf.edu

    Abstract

    Objectives Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV. Criminalisation of homosexuality may impede access to HIV services. We evaluated the effect of the enforcement of laws criminalising homosexuality on access to services.

    Methods Using data from a 2012 global online survey that was published in a prior paper, we conducted a secondary analysis evaluating differences in perceived accessibility to health services (ie, ‘how accessible are ____’ services) between MSM who responded ‘yes’/‘no’ to: ‘have you ever been arrested or convicted for being gay/MSM?’

    Results Of the 4020 participants who completed the study and were included in the analysis, 8% reported ever being arrested or convicted under laws relevant to being MSM. Arrests and convictions were most common in sub-Saharan Africa (23.6% (58/246)), Eastern Europe/Central Asia (18.1% (123/680)), the Caribbean (15% (15/100)), Middle East/North Africa (13.2% (10/76)) and Latin America (9.7% (58/599)). Those arrested or convicted had significantly lower access to sexually transmitted infection treatment (adjusted OR (aOR)=0.81; 95% CI 0.67 to 0.97), condoms (aOR=0.77; 95% CI 0.61 to 0.99) and medical care (aOR=0.70; 95% CI 0.54 to 0.90), compared with other MSM, while accounting for clustering by country and adjusting for age, HIV status, education and country-level income.

    Conclusions Arrests and convictions under laws relevant to being MSM have a strong negative association with access to HIV prevention and care services. Creating an enabling legal and policy environment, and increasing efforts to mitigate antihomosexuality stigma to ensure equitable access to HIV services are needed, along with decriminalisation of homosexuality, to effectively address the public health needs of this population.

    • HIV
    • PUBLIC HEALTH
    • LAW
    • HIV TESTING
    • HOMOSEXUALITY

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Jackie A Cassell

    • Collaborators Pato Hebert; Jack Beck; Patrick Wilson.

    • Contributors All authors contributed to and approved the final draft of the manuscript. G-MS conceptualised the analysis, wrote the manuscript and conducted the data analysis and interpretation. KM, SA, TD and GA were responsible for the design of the study, assisted in the writing of the manuscript and interpretation of data.

    • Funding The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded this study.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Research Triangle Institute International's IRB provided the IRB exemption.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.