Delineating patterns of sexualized substance use and its association with sexual and mental health outcomes among young gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Singapore: a latent class analysis

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Abstract

Background

Young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YMSM) are vulnerable to the risks associated with sexualized substance use. This is a novel study in Singapore that aims to classify patterns of sexualized substance use among YMSM, and investigate its association with sexual and mental health outcomes.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study among 570 YMSM aged 18 to 25 years old, latent class analysis (LCA) conducted to identify classes with similar patterns of sexualized substance use, across which measures of inconsistent condom use, recent STI diagnoses, past suicide ideation and depression severity were compared.

Results

LCA revealed three classes of YMSM based on types of substances ever used in sexualized contexts, which we labelled as ‘substance-naive’, ‘substance-novice’, and ‘chemsex’. Substance-naive participants ( n = 404) had only ever used alcohol, while substance-novice participants ( n = 143) were primarily amyl nitrite users with a small proportion who reported using chemsex-related drugs. Chemsex participants ( n = 23) comprised individuals who had mostly used such drugs. Those in the chemsex group were more likely to report recent unprotected anal sex with casual partners (aPR = 3.28, 95%CI [1.85, 5.79]), depression severity (aβ = 3.69, 95%CI [0.87, 6.51]) and a history of suicide ideation (aPR = 1.64, 95%CI [1.33, 2.03]).

Conclusions

Findings of this study highlight how the use of varying substances in sexualized contexts may be classified and characterized by different sexual and mental health outcomes. Health promotion efforts should be differentiated accordingly to address the risks associated with sexualized substance use among YMSM.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11056-5.

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Most cited references 49

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Author and article information

Contributors

Rayner Kay Jin Tan:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9188-3368

rayner.tan@u.nus.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 31 May 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 31 May 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 21

Electronic Location Identifier: 1026

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.4280.e, ISNI 0000 0001 2180 6431, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, , National University of Singapore, ; 12 Science Drive 2, MD1 Tahir Foundation Building #10-01, Singapore, 117549 Singapore

[2 ]GRID grid.4280.e, ISNI 0000 0001 2180 6431, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, , National University of Singapore, ; 10 Medical Dr, Singapore, 117597 Singapore

[3 ]Action for AIDS Singapore, 9 Kelantan Lane #03-01, Singapore, 208628 Singapore

[4 ]GRID grid.412106.0, ISNI 0000 0004 0621 9599, National University Hospital, National University Health System, ; Singapore, Singapore

Author information

Rayner Kay Jin Tan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9188-3368

Article

Publisher ID: 11056

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-11056-5

PMC ID: 8166008

PubMed ID: 34059021

SO-VID: feb1c5c7-4724-462c-80e1-f2bab3b40d81

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 16 October 2020

Date accepted : 13 May 2021

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001349, National Medical Research Council;

Award ID: NMRC/CG/C026/2017_NUHS

Award Recipient : Rayner Kay Jin Tan

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: chemsex,alcohol,poppers,msm,singapore

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: chemsex, alcohol, poppers, msm, singapore

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Delineating patterns of sexualized substance use and its association with sexual and mental health outcomes among young gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Singapore: a latent class analysis

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Abstract

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Conclusions

Supplementary Information

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Most cited references 49

The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure.

Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence.

Validation and Utility of a Self-report Version of PRIME-MDThe PHQ Primary Care Study

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