Prevalence and Predictors of Psychoactive Drug Use among Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Longitudinal and Mediation Study

ABSTRACT

Few longitudinal studies have examined the prevalence of psychoactive drug use and its related predictors among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) in Hong Kong. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychoactive drug use in this population and the relationships of background characteristics, health status, MSM-related self-stigma, and perceived stress with psychoactive drug use. Furthermore, the study tested the mediation effect of perceived stress in the relationship between MSM-related self-stigma and psychoactive drug use based on the minority stress model and the general strain model. A total of 600 MSM were recruited through multiple sources and completed a telephone interview at baseline, and 407 completed the 6-month follow-up survey. Prevalence of using any type of psychoactive drugs in the past 12 months at baseline and in the past six months at follow-up was 16.8% and 9.1% respectively. History of sexually transmitted infection (STI), self-stigma and perceived stress significantly predicted psychoactive drug use at 6-month follow-up. Bootstrapping analysis showed that self-stigma could, directly and indirectly, predict psychoactive drug use at 6-month follow-up through perceived stress. The results highlighted the need for interventions to reduce psychoactive drug use among local MSM and its potential modifiable factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychoactive drug use
• self-stigma
• stress
• men who have sex with men

Contributors

ZW designed the original study as principal investigator. XY conceptualized the objectives and hypotheses for the study, conducted analyses, and drafted the manuscript. XY and ZW took primary responsibility for drafting the introduction, results, discussion, and tables. PM provided advice to the study and contributed to the original study design. MI contributed to data collection. All authors have approved the final article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Beat Drugs Fund, Narcotics Division, Security Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [Project Ref: #160051].