 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Héctor Carrillo, DrPH, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, 74 New Montgomery St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 597-4967, hcarrillo@psg.ucsf.edu
Based on quantitative data collected for the Nuestras Voces study in Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco (Diaz, P.I.), and on a series of in-depth interviews conducted in San Diego and Guadalajara (Carrillo, P.I.), we will discuss factors that create differences in HIV risk between Latino gay immigrants and their U.S.-born counterparts. Our analysis shows that recent gay Latino immigrants have significantly lower levels of sexual HIV risk than U.S. born Latino gay men. This finding is consistent with data on other health issues that researchers and practitioners commonly regard as a “health paradox.” This phrase reflects the expectation that the health status of U.S. populations should be better than that of recent immigrants arriving from impoverished Latin American countries. We will examine whether the differences in HIV risk are created by greater sexual conservatism among the recent immigrants, greater awareness about HIV and higher safe sex standards, fewer experiences of social oppression, lower drug use, situational factors related to participation in U.S. gay communities, or all of these factors combined. We will also discuss why the levels of HIV risk among immigrants appear to increase with their length of residence in the U.S., as well as strategies that might help maintain the protective factors that seem to accompany the immigrants upon arrival.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Latinos, Gay Men
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.