Supernatural beliefs, religious affiliations, and HIV testing among recently arrived Asian-born men who have sex with men in Australia

ABSTRACT

HIV testing rates among recently arrived (≤5 years) Asian-born men who have sex with men (MSM) in Australia remain suboptimal. Research indicates that belief in supernatural determinants of health (supernatural beliefs) may be an important barrier to greater HIV test uptake. We examined potential associations between supernatural beliefs and HIV testing among recently arrived Asian-born MSM in Australia. In 2019, an online survey was completed by 186 self-identified MSM born in Asia, and who arrived in Australia within the past five years and were never diagnosed with HIV. Supernatural belief was measured as the extent to which one felt that health was influenced by supernatural forces. Measures of association were estimated with multiple logistic regression. Participants with supernatural beliefs were significantly less likely to have tested for HIV in the past year. The adjusted predicted probability of not testing for HIV in the past year was 44.8% among those who held supernatural beliefs (95% CI: 30.5–59.2%), but only 5.2% among those who did not hold supernatural beliefs (95% CI: 1.9–8.6%). Religious affiliation was not significantly associated with testing for HIV. Supernatural beliefs may be an important but underappreciated barrier to HIV testing among recently arrived Asian-born MSM in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Superstitions
• magical thinking
• spirituality
• religion
• homosexuality
• HIV testing

Disclosure statement

All authors report no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Alfred Hospital Ethics Committee, Melbourne, Australia. (Project 222/19).

Consent to participate

Consent to participate was obtained from all study participants.

Code availability

Available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

EPFC and JJO are each supported by an Australian NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant (GNT1172873 and GNT1193955, respectively). CKF is supported by an Australian NHMRC Leadership Investigator Grant (GNT1172900).