Withdrawn: The Relationship Between Social Network Factors and MSM Disclosure Among African American MSM

African American men who have sex with men (MSM) in the US continue to have exceedingly high rates of HIV.   To provide HIV prevention and care services and to obtain informal social support for HIV, it may be useful for these men to disclose their sexual behaviors.  The current study examined the baseline data of 345 African American MSM who had enrolled in a primary and secondary HIV prevention study in Baltimore, Maryland.  A 6-item disclosure scale assessed the degree to which they attempted to keep their sexual behaviors with other men secret (Cronbach’s alpha = .92).  A social network inventory which assessed support and risk network members was also administered as well as questions on MSM disclosure to health care providers and depressive symptoms in the prior two weeks (CES-D).  Forty one percent of the sample was HIV seropositive, 53% identified as gay, and 33% as bisexual.  Participants who scored low on MSM disclosure scale were significantly less likely to disclose their MSM status to health care providers.  They also had more female sex partners, fewer HIV positive network members, fewer network members with whom they socialized, and more drug users in their social networks.  Sexual orientation was also significantly associated with scores on the MSM disclosure scale, and those who scored lower on the MSM disclosure scale reported, on average, statistically significantly more depressive symptoms.  Results from this study suggest that disclosure is associated both with sexual identity and social network factors.  It appear that African American MSM with female sexual partners are more likely to try to hide their same sex behaviors. These results suggest that specific programs for HIV prevention and care and mental health care may be needed for African American MSM who identify as bisexual or have both male and female sexual partners.