Table 2.
Characteristics of indexes (participants) (N = 371) and partnerships (N = 836) by index race and HIV transmission potential (TPP) in the Understanding Sexual Health in Networks Study (USHINE), Baltimore City, July 2018-March 2020
| Black index N = 270 |
Non-Black index N = 101 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any HIV TPP N = 76 (28.2%) |
No HIV TPP N = 194 (71.9%) |
Any HIV TPP N = 18 (17.8%) |
No HIV TPP N = 83 (82.2%) |
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| Index Level | N | % | N | % | p-value | N | % | N | % | p-value |
| Age ≥ 25 years | 59 | 77.6 | 137 | 70.6 | 0.245 | 14 | 77.8 | 62 | 74.7 | 0.784 |
| > High school graduation | 23 | 39.6 | 106 | 50.0 | 0.162 | 8 | 80.0 | 83 | 91.2 | 0.260 |
| Sex partners, past three months, median (IQR) | 3 | (2.5) | 2 | (3.0) | 0.217 | 3 | (3) | 3 | (4) | 0.845 |
| Non-injection drug use, past three months | 29 | 38.2 | 65 | 33.5 | 0.442 | 7 | 38.9 | 28 | 33.7 | 0.677 |
| Injection drug use, past three months | 11 | 14.5 | 12 | 6.2 | 0.027 | 4 | 22.2 | 6 | 7.2 | 0.054 |
| HIV positive2 | 49 | 64.5 | 75 | 38.7 | < 0.001 | 9 | 50.0 | 11 | 13.3 | < 0.001 |
| Syphilis positive3 | 16 | 21.1 | 21 | 10.8 | 0.029 | 1 | 5.6 | 4 | 4.8 | 0.837 |
| Chlamydia and/or gonorrhea positive4 | 14 | 18.4 | 39 | 20.1 | 0.700 | 2 | 11.1 | 19 | 22.9 | 0.543 |
| Black index partnerships N = 586 |
Non-Black index partnerships N = 250 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIV TPP N = 132 (22.5%) |
No HIV TPP N = 454 (77.5%) |
HIV TPP N = 28 (11.2%) |
No HIV TPP N = 222 (88.8%) |
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| Partnership Level | N | % | N | % | p-value | N | % | N | % | p-value |
| Age difference (> ± 5 years) | 53 | 40.2 | 174 | 38.3 | 0.259 | 14 | 50.0 | 105 | 47.30 | 0.421 |
| Condomless anal intercourse, last sex | 78 | 59.1 | 294 | 64.8 | 0.234 | 17 | 60.7 | 171 | 77.0 | 0.060 |
| Partner HIV serostatus5 | < 0.001 | < 0.001 | ||||||||
| HIV negative | 43 | 32.6 | 315 | 69.4 | 5 | 17.9 | 199 | 89.6 | ||
| HIV positive | 1 | 0.8 | 99 | 21.8 | 2 | 7.1 | 20 | 9.0 | ||
| HIV unknown | 88 | 66.7 | 40 | 8.8 | 21 | 75.0 | 3 | 1.4 | ||
| Sex partner concurrency6 | 108 | 81.8 | 285 | 62.8 | < 0.001 | 21 | 75.0 | 149 | 67.1 | 0.124 |
1Defined as a partnership between an HIV positive index with an HIV negative or HIV unknown partner or vice versa. If the index reported he or his partner was on PrEP or ARTs, the partnership was not coded as an HIV transmission risk partnership regardless of the partner’s HIV serostatus
2Determined by an HIV rapid test with ELISA confirmation, medical record documentation, or in a few cases, participant self-report
3Defined as a rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titer greater than 1:8 in combination with a positive treponemal test
4Determined by nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)
5Determined by index self-report
6Determined by index self-report of whether their partner was having sex with other people while having sex with them