Experiences of stigma and health care engagement among Black MSM newly diagnosed with HIV/STI

Rates of HIV/STI transmission among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) are alarmingly high and demand urgent public health attention. Stigma related concerns are a key barrier to accessing health care and prevention tools, yet limited research has been focused in this area. Experiences of stigma related to health care were evaluated among 151 BMSM residing in the Atlanta, GA area, both prior to and post HIV or STI diagnosis in a longitudinal study (data collected from 2014 to 2016). Findings demonstrated that inadequate health care engagement is associated with post-diagnosis anticipated stigma (b = - 0.38, SE = 0.17 p ≤ .05). Pre-diagnosis prejudice is a predictor of post-diagnosis enacted (b = 0.39, SE = 0.14, p