Association of Medical Mistrust and Poor Communication with HIV-Related Health Outcomes and Psychosocial Wellbeing Among Heterosexual Men Living with HIV

Studies have suggested that effective patient-provider relationships may reduce health disparities and foster engagement across the HIV care continuum among people living with HIV/AIDS. However, no studies have explored specific mechanisms between medical mistrust/poor communication and HIV-related/psychosocial health outcomes among HIV-positive men of color who have sex with women (MCSW) in the United States. From 2011 to 2012, the research team recruited 317 eligible participants in New York City. Using validated explanatory and predictive modeling strategies, we explored the associations between mistrust/poor communication and HIV-related/psychosocial health outcomes among this group. Subgroup analyses were further conducted to assess the different effects of non-Hispanic black and Hispanic men. A total of 313 males (204 black, 93 Hispanic, and 16 others) reported that valid responses were included in the current analysis. In the explanatory models, both mistrust and poor communication were negatively associated with various HIV-related and psychosocial outcomes among this group of HIV-positive MCSW. In the predictive models, predictors of mistrust for the overall sample and the black subsample were nearly the same. On the contrary, predictors of poor communication were substantially different when comparing black and Hispanic HIV-positive MCSW. Our findings confirm that patient-provider relationship quality is associated with poor HIV-related and psychosocial outcomes in black and Hispanic MCSW. A different set of multi-level predictors are associated with mistrust and poor communication comparing black and Hispanic MCSW. We call for interventions addressing patient-provider relationship quality that are tailored differently for black and Hispanic men.