Correlates of social isolation among people living with HIV in British Columbia, Canada

ABSTRACT

Our study aims to define and identify correlates of social isolation among people living with HIV (PLHIV). The Longitudinal Investigation into Supportive and Ancillary health services (LISA) study provided a cross-sectional analytic sample of 996 PLHIV in British Columbia, Canada (sampled between 2007 and 2010). Individuals marginalized by socio-structural inequities were oversampled; sampling bias was addressed through inverse probability of participation weighting. Through latent class analysis, three groups were identified: Socially Connected (SC) (n = 364, 37%), Minimally Isolated (MI) (n = 540, 54%) and Socially Isolated (SI) (n = 92, 9%). Correlates of the SI and MI classes, determined through multivariable multinomial regression using the SC class as a reference, include: recent violence (aOR 1.61, 95%CI 1.28–2.02 [MI vs. SC]; aOR 2.04, 95%CI 1.41–2.96 [SI vs. SC]) and a mental health diagnosis (aOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.31–1.72 [MI vs. SC]; aOR 1.43, 95%CI 1.11–1.83 [SI vs. SC]). Women (aOR 0.47; 95%CI 0.32–0.68 [SI vs. SC]), individuals of Indigenous ancestry (aOR 0.59; 95%CI 0.40–0.87 [SI vs. SC]) and people identifying as gay or lesbian (aOR 0.37; 95%CI 0.26–0.52 [SI vs. SC]) were less likely to experience isolation. These findings highlight the importance of supporting communities fostering connectedness and identifies populations susceptible to isolation.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• social isolation
• social connectedness
• social networks
• latent class analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank all the LISA participants; this work would not have been possible without their help and dedication. The authors would also like to acknowledge the LISA Community Advisory Committee: Terry Howard, Rosa Jamal, Isabella Kirchner, Sandy Lambert, Kecia Larkin, Steve Levine, Melissa Medjuck, Stacie Migwans, Sam Mohan, Lori Montgomery, Glynn Townson, Michelle Webb, and Sarah White, along with the study co-investigators: Dr Rolando Barrios, Dr David Burdge, Dr Marianne Harris, Dr David Henderson, Dr Thomas Kerr, Dr Julio S. G. Montaner, Dr Thomas Patterson, Dr Eric Roth, Dr Mark W. Tyndall, Dr Brian Willoughby and Dr Evan Wood.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number 53396].