Citation

Pyra M, Weber KM, Wilson TE, Cohen J, Murchison L, Goparaju L, Golub ET, Cohen MH. Am. J. Public Health 2014; 104(12): e83-90.

Affiliation

At the time of this study, Maria Pyra was with the Hektoen Institute, Chicago, IL. Kathleen M. Weber and Mardge H. Cohen are with the CORE Center, Cook County Bureau of Health Services, Chicago, IL. Tracey E. Wilson is with the SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Public Health, Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Cohen is with the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco. Lynn Murchison is with the Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY. Lakshmi Goparaju is with the Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. Elizabeth T. Golub is with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2014.302259

PMID

25320890

Abstract

OBJECTIVEs. We examined the associations between depressive symptoms and sexual identity and behavior among women with or at risk for HIV.

METHODS. We analyzed longitudinal data from 1811 participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) from 1994 to 2013 in Brooklyn and the Bronx, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, by comparing depressive symptoms by baseline sexual identity and ongoing sexual behavior. We controlled for age, socioeconomic status, violence history, and substance use.

RESULTS. In separate analyses, bisexual women and women who reported having sex with both men and women during follow-up had higher unadjusted odds of depressive symptoms compared with heterosexuals and women who reported only having male sexual partners (adjusted odd ratio [AOR] = 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI]  = 1.10, 1.69 and AOR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.06, 1.37, respectively). Age was a significant effect modifier in multivariable analysis; sexual minority women had increased odds of depressive symptoms in early adulthood, but they did not have these odds at midlife. Odds of depressive symptoms were lower among some sexual minority women at older ages.

CONCLUSIONS. Patterns of depressive symptoms over the life course of sexual minority women with or at risk for HIV might differ from heterosexual women and from patterns observed in the general aging population. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print October 16, 2014: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302259).

Language: en