Recent anxiety symptoms and drug use associated with sexually transmitted infection diagnosis among an online US sample of men who have sex with men

Abstract

The extent to which mental health problems, including current anxiety and depressive symptoms, may co-occur, or are associated, with the acquisition of sexually transmitted infections other than HIV remains largely unexplored among men who have sex with men. In a cross-sectional survey of 8,381 US men who have sex with men recruited from a sexual networking website, 15 percent reported a past 60-day sexually transmitted infection diagnosis. Among HIV-negative men, increased odds of reporting a sexually transmitted infection were associated with current anxiety symptoms and past 60-day drug use. Findings underscore the need to better understand causal pathways among anxiety, drug use, and sexually transmitted infection acquisition and transmission among men who have sex with men.