Multilevel Influences on HIV and Substance Use in a YMSM Cohort (RADAR), Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2015-2018

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded RADAR in 2014 to collect multilevel, longitudinal data and biospecimens from an ethnically and racially diverse cohort of young, sexual and gender minorities (SGM; e.g., men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, gender non-conforming individuals) who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) (current core cohort n=1,113). The primary objective of this study is to apply a multilevel perspective to a syndemic of health issues associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in this population. The multilevel design focuses on individual, dyadic (i.e., sexual and romantic relationships), network (i.e., social, drug, and sexual connections) and biologic factors that may be associated with HIV. The cohort contains both HIV-negative and HIV-positive individuals, which allows for the development of a repository of biospecimens and HIV sequence data from both pre-infection and post-infection visits that will help facilitate future projects evaluating substance use, HIV risk, and pathogenesis. A multiple cohort, accelerated longitudinal design was utilized by initially enrolling two existing SGM cohorts and then expanded through the use of convenience and snowball sampling methods. Enrollment criteria varied slightly based on the recruitment method, but overall inclusion criteria required participants to be AMAB, between 16 and 29 years of age, report having had sex with a man in the prior year or identify as a SGM, live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and be an English speaker. Study recruitment opened in February 2015 and closed in September 2017, except for the recruitment of cohort members' serious partners which will continue for the remainder of the study in order to build a dynamic dyadic network. Participants are followed through the developmental period of late adolescence to early adulthood, which is a critical period of initiation and acceleration of sexual behavior and substance use. Study visits occur every six months.

国家药物滥用研究所（NIDA）于2014年资助了RADAR项目，旨在收集来自一个种族和民族多元化的年轻性少数和性别少数群体（SGM；例如，男同性恋者（MSM）、跨性别女性、性别非规范个体）的多层次、纵向数据和生物样本，这些群体在出生时被指定为男性（AMAB）（当前核心队列人数为1,113人）。本研究的首要目标是采用多层次视角研究该人群中与人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）相关联的并发健康问题。多层次设计侧重于个人、二元关系（即性关系和恋爱关系）、网络（即社会、药物和性连接）以及可能与HIV相关的生物因素。该队列包含HIV阴性和HIV阳性个体，这为从感染前和感染后的访问中建立生物样本库和HIV序列数据提供了可能，这些数据将有助于促进未来评估物质使用、HIV风险和发病机制的项目。项目采用了多重队列、加速纵向设计，最初招募了两个现有的SGM队列，并通过便利和滚雪球抽样方法进行扩展。根据招募方法的不同，纳入标准略有变化，但总体而言，纳入标准要求参与者为AMAB，年龄在16至29岁之间，在过去一年内报告有过与男性的性行为或自认为是SGM，居住在芝加哥都会区，并且会说英语。研究招募于2015年2月启动，于2017年9月结束，但招募队列成员的严重伴侣将继续进行，以便建立一个动态的二元关系网络。参与者将接受从青春期晚期到成年早期的发展期跟踪，这是性行为和物质使用开始和加速的关键时期。研究访问每六个月进行一次。