NEW STUDY FIRST TO USE PANDEMIC STRESS INDEX THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON LATINX SEXUAL MINOR Written by Amanda Torres Published on January 29, 2021 Category: Faculty, Research
their responses by recent, established, and U.S. born immigration statuses.
Latinx sexual minority men are at the intersection of two communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. In a new University of Miami Miller School of Medicine-led study, public health experts utilized the Pandemic Stress Index, in which Latinx sexual minority men reported their behavioral, psychosocial, and medical experiences during COVID-19, as well as their current immigration statuses.
Researchers found that Latinx sexual minority men experienced anxieties, depression, sleep difficulties, substance use, loss of income or employment, and fears about how others in their lives were managing during COVID-19.
The study—published online in the Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health in January 2021—is the first to assess Latinx sexual minority men’s responses to the Pandemic Stress Index and the first to compare
Depending on their immigration status, each were also affected differently throughout the pandemic. Experts suggest that the findings should be accounted for as COVID-19 services and public health messages are developed and disseminated to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. “We’re finding that the experiences that Latinx sexual minority men during COVID-19 really differ among differ-
ent subgroups, specifically by immigration status, and that’s important for informing our public health efforts related to COVID-19,” said study lead author Audrey Harkness, Ph.D., research assistant professor at the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences. After the pandemic struck the U.S., UM health experts, public health scientists and mental health professionals developed the Pandemic Stress Index—a three-item inventory that assesses behavior changes and stressors that may have occurred in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “COVID-19 has really changed the way in which we have to look at sexual health among those who may be living with or at risk for HIV,” said study senior author Steve Safren, Ph.D.,
76
