What role does geographic distance play in sexual partner selection among young men who have sex with men (YMSM)?

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) represent one of the only groups in which HIV incidence has continued to grow.  However, research has shown that individual characteristics may not be sufficient to explain this trend, and that greater understanding of social-contextual factors is necessary.  An important attribute of interest is geographic distance between sex partners, specifically, what individual and dyadic characteristics drive the formation of local versus distant sexual partnerships?

Data for this analysis come from 175 network interviews conducted with YMSM in Chicago.  Matching of Egos and Alters resulted in a network of 3,140 unique individuals and 1,318 unique sexual partnerships.

Only 23.5% of sexual partners resided in the same community area, and, on average, sexual partners lived a mean of 2.85 miles apart (standard deviation = 3.03 miles).  Using generalized estimating equations (GEE) to control for Egos with multiple sex partners, we found that female partners of YMSM tended to live closer than male partners (0.91 miles; p = 0.001).  Additionally, racial differences were found with increased distance within Black partnerships (0.87 miles; p = 0.002). Compared with boyfriends, individuals in a sexual partnership with a friend or a one night stand lived significantly farther apart (1.08 miles, p = 0.02; 1.62 miles, p = 0.01, respectively).

As might be expected, sexual partnerships that may be generally less socially accepted tend to involve partners with greater distance.