Multilevel Influences on HIV and Substance Use in a YMSM Cohort (RADAR), Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2015-2020

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. 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.

美国国家药物滥用研究所（National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA）于2014年资助RADAR项目，旨在从种族与族裔多元的年轻性与性别少数群体（sexual and gender minorities, SGM；含男男性行为者men who have sex with men, MSM、跨性别女性、性别非顺从个体）中收集多维度纵向数据与生物样本。该队列成员均为出生时被指派为男性（assigned male at birth, AMAB），当前核心队列样本量为1113例。
本研究的核心目标是以多维度视角解析该群体中与人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）相关的协同健康问题综合征。本次研究的多维度设计聚焦于可能与HIV感染相关的四大层面因素：个体层面、二元关系层面（即性与亲密恋爱关系）、社会网络层面（即社会联结、药物使用关联与性接触网络）以及生物学层面。该队列同时覆盖HIV阴性与HIV阳性个体，由此可构建包含感染前与感染后随访访视的生物样本库与HIV序列数据库，将为后续开展物质使用、HIV感染风险及发病机制相关研究提供重要支撑。
本项目采用多队列加速纵向研究设计：首先纳入两个已有的SGM队列，随后通过方便抽样与滚雪球抽样法扩大招募规模。不同招募方式对应的招募标准略有差异，但整体纳入标准要求参与者需满足以下条件：出生时被指派为男性、年龄介于16至29岁、过去一年曾与男性发生性行为或自我标识为性与性别少数群体、居住于芝加哥大都会区且具备英语沟通能力。项目招募工作于2015年2月正式启动。
研究随访覆盖青春期末期至成年早期的发展阶段——这一时期正是性行为与物质使用行为启动及加速发展的关键窗口期，所有参与者每6个月接受一次随访访视。