Objective:
To understand HIV status and depressive symptoms among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the HIV-infected young people/social network.
Methods:
Intervention network of local CDC was used to recruit HIV-infected young people/students in the city. A mixed recruitment method of snowball sampling and respondent driven sampling method. A MSM young people/students with HIV infection. A total of 201 valid questionnaires were collected.
Results:
Among them, 132(65.7%) were students, 121(60.2%) were HIV-positive, 108(53.7%) had depressive symptoms. The awareness rate was 92.0%(185). Binary-Logistic regression analysis showed that HIV infection(aOR=4.06,95%CI=2.13-7.72), living alone (aOR=2.93, 95%CI=1.31-6.52) and having sex before the age of 18 (aOR=4.13, 95%CI=1.32-12.96) were significantly associated with depression, moreover, HIV knowledge was a protective factor that help to resist depression in young MSM(aOR=0.30, 95%CI=0.13-0.69)(P<0.01).
Conclusion
Depressive symptoms are prevalent among HIV-infected MSM young people. It s cost-effective to promote a multiple biomedical package of increasing HIV/AIDS awareness, reducing HIV infection and transmission to protect young people/students from depression.