Volume 32, Issue 2: April, 2005

HIV Risk and Protection Among Gay Male Couples: The Role of Gay Community Integration

Stevenson Fergus, MPH, Megan A. Lewis, PhD, Lynae A. Darbes, PhD, and Rita M. Butterfield, PhD

This study examined the association between different types of integration in the gay community and HIV risk among gay male couples. Previous research linking gay community integration and involvement among couples to HIV risk has been equivocal. Each partner in 59 gay couples completed a separate anonymous questionnaire that assessed two types of social involvement in the gay community, assimilation into the gay community, and sexual HIV risk behaviors. We used the actor-partner interdependence analysis approach, which maintains the couple as the unit of analysis while allowing for tests of within-couple, between-couple, actor, and partner effects. Analyses revealed that, controlling for symptoms of alcohol problems, going to gay bars and clubs independently predicted more HIV risk.