TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - 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
JO  - BMC public health
A1  - Tan, Rayner Kay Jin
A1  - O'Hara, Caitlin Alsandria
A1  - Koh, Wee Ling
A1  - Le, Daniel
A1  - Tan, Avin
A1  - Tyler, Adrian
A1  - Tan, Calvin
A1  - Kwok, Chronos
A1  - Banerjee, Sumita
A1  - Wong, Mee Lian
SP  - 1026
EP  - 1026
VL  - 21
IS  - 1
N2  - 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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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]). <br><br>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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1471-2458
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11056-5
ID  - ref1
ER  -