Men Who Have Sex With Men

• DOI: 10.1097/qai.0b013e3181594c4d
• Publication Date: 2009-03-03T23:43:42Z
• Authors: Spencer Lieb; Mary Jo Trepka; Daniel R Thompson; Paul Arons; Thomas Liberti; Lorene Maddox; Lisa Metsch; Marlene LaLota; Stephen J Fallon
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Population Density; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Racial Groups; Black People; HIV Infections; Hispanic or Latino; White People; 3. Good health; Black or African American; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Ethnicity; Florida; Humans; Homosexuality, Male; Mortality

Estimated numbers of men who have sex with men (MSM) by race/ethnicity and mortality rates among such MSM with HIV/AIDS are unavailable. This hampers efficient targeting of HIV/AIDS prevention and care resources.An existing estimation methodology was adapted to develop MSM population estimates by race/ethnicity for Miami-Dade County, Florida. We ascertained and characterized deaths that occurred during 2003 to 2005 among MSM HIV/AIDS cases, matching HIV/AIDS surveillance and vital statistics registries. We calculated estimated average annual racial/ethnic-specific mortality rates and rate ratios (RRs) among MSM HIV/AIDS cases.An estimated 63,020 men aged > or =18 years in the county are MSM (7.5% of all men aged > or =18 years; point estimate). Among 754 MSM HIV/AIDS deaths, point-estimate mortality rates per 100,000 MSM were higher for blacks (733.5) than for whites (229.2) (P < 0.01) and Hispanics (360.5) (P < 0.01). The best estimate of the black/white MSM mortality RR among HIV/AIDS cases was 3.20:1 (P < 0.01); for Hispanic/white MSM, it was 1.57:1 (P < 0.01). Sensitivity analyses suggested the estimates were reasonably robust to biases that we examined.Black and Hispanic MSM were more likely to die with HIV/AIDS than white MSM. Plausible racial/ethnic-specific MSM population and mortality rate estimates can inform effective HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and program planning.