Economic, Mental Health, HIV Prevention and HIV Treatment Impacts of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 Response on a Global Sample of Cisgender Gay Men and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men

Glenn-Milo Santos (1, 2) , Benjamin Ackerman (3) , Amrita Rao (4) , Sara Wallach (4) , George Ayala (5) , Erik Lamontagne (6, 7) , Alex Garner , Ian Holloway (8) , Sonya Arreola (5) , Vince Silenzio (9) , Susanne Strömdahl (10, 11) , Louis Yu (12) , Carol Strong (13) , Tyler Adamson (4) , Anna Yakusik (6) , Tran Thu Doan (14) , Poyao Huang (15) , Damiano Cerasuolo (16, 17) , Amie Bishop (18) , Teymur Noori (19) , Anastasia Pharris (19) , Max Aung (14) , Masoud Dara (20) , Ssu Yu Chung (21) , Marguerite Hanley , Stefan Baral (4) , Chris Beyrer (4) , Sean Howell (21)

1 Community Health Systems Department, University of California San Francisco
2 Center of Public Health Research, San Francisco Department of Public Health
3 Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4 Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
5 MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights
6 Joint United Nations Programme On HIV and AIDS
7 AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques
8 Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California Los Angeles
9 Rutgers School of Public Health
10 Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet
11 Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Sciences
12 Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics, Gustavus Adolphus College
13 Department of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University
14 Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Michigan
15 Department of Communication, University of California San Diego
16 CIC Rouen - Centre d'Investigation Clinique [CHU Rouen]
17 University Hospital of CAEN
18 OutRight Action International
19 ECDC - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
20 WHO Regional Office for Europe [Copenhagen]
21 LGBT Foundation

There is an urgent need to measure the impacts of COVID-19 among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). We conducted a cross-sectional survey with a global sample of gay men and other MSM (n = 2732) from April 16, 2020 to May 4, 2020, through a social networking app. We characterized the economic, mental health, HIV prevention and HIV treatment impacts of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 response, and examined whether sub-groups of our study population are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Many gay men and other MSM not only reported economic and mental health consequences, but also interruptions to HIV prevention and testing, and HIV care and treatment services. These consequences were significantly greater among people living with HIV, racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, sex workers, and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. These findings highlight the urgent need to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 among gay men and other MSM.

Keywords: COVID-19; Economic impact; Mental health; HIV; AIDS; Gay; Men who have sex with men

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Economics and Finance

Glenn-Milo Santos, Benjamin Ackerman, Amrita Rao, Sara Wallach, George Ayala, et al.. Economic, Mental Health, HIV Prevention and HIV Treatment Impacts of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 Response on a Global Sample of Cisgender Gay Men and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men. AIDS and Behavior, 2021, 25 (2), pp.311-321. ⟨10.1007/s10461-020-02969-0⟩. ⟨hal-02909813⟩