IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v139y2015icp26-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Syndemics of psychosocial problems and HIV risk: A systematic review of empirical tests of the disease interaction concept

Author

Listed:
  • Tsai, Alexander C.
  • Burns, Bridget F.O.

Abstract

In the theory of syndemics, diseases co-occur in particular temporal or geographical contexts due to harmful social conditions (disease concentration) and interact at the level of populations and individuals, with mutually enhancing deleterious consequences for health (disease interaction). This theory has widespread adherents in the field, but the extent to which there is empirical support for the concept of disease interaction remains unclear. In January 2015 we systematically searched 7 bibliographic databases and tracked citations to highly cited publications associated with the theory of syndemics. Of the 783 records, we ultimately included 34 published journal articles, 5 dissertations, and 1 conference abstract. Most studies were based on a cross-sectional design (32 [80%]), were conducted in the U.S. (32 [80%]), and focused on men who have sex with men (21 [53%]). The most frequently studied psychosocial problems were related to mental health (33 [83%]), substance abuse (36 [90%]), and violence (27 [68%]); while the most frequently studied outcome variables were HIV transmission risk behaviors (29 [73%]) or HIV infection (9 [23%]). To test the disease interaction concept, 11 (28%) studies used some variation of a product term, with less than half of these (5/11 [45%]) providing sufficient information to interpret interaction both on an additive and on a multiplicative scale. The most frequently used specification (31 [78%]) to test the disease interaction concept was the sum score corresponding to the total count of psychosocial problems. Although the count variable approach does not test hypotheses about interactions between psychosocial problems, these studies were much more likely than others (14/31 [45%] vs. 0/9 [0%]; χ2 = 6.25, P = 0.01) to incorporate language about “synergy” or “interaction” that was inconsistent with the statistical models used. Therefore, more evidence is needed to assess the extent to which diseases interact, either at the level of populations or individuals, to amplify HIV risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsai, Alexander C. & Burns, Bridget F.O., 2015. "Syndemics of psychosocial problems and HIV risk: A systematic review of empirical tests of the disease interaction concept," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 26-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:139:y:2015:i:c:p:26-35
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.06.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300034
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.06.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. Mustanski, B. & Andrews, R. & Herrick, A. & Stall, R. & Schnarrs, P.W., 2014. "A Syndemic of Psychosocial Health Disparities and Associations With Rifor Attempting Suicide Among Young Sexual Minority Men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(2), pages 287-294.
    3. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 2013. "Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(5), pages 813-821.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    5. Parsons, J.T. & Grov, C. & Golub, S.A., 2012. "Sexual compulsivity, co-occurring psychosocial health problems, and HIV risk among gay and bisexual men: Further evidence of a syndemic," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(1), pages 156-162.
    6. Horrace, William C. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2006. "Results on the bias and inconsistency of ordinary least squares for the linear probability model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 321-327, March.
    7. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    8. Tsai, A.C. & Karasic, D.H. & Hammer, G.P. & Charlebois, E.D. & Ragland, K. & Moss, A.R. & Sorensen, J.L. & Dilley, J.W. & Bangsberg, D.R., 2013. "Directly observed antidepressant medication treatment and HIV outcomes among homeless and marginally housed HIV-positive adults: A randomized controlled trial," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(2), pages 308-315.
    9. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    10. Riley, E.D. & Cohen, J. & Knight, K.R. & Decker, A. & Marson, K. & Shumway, M., 2014. "Recent violence in a community-based sample of homeless and unstably housed women with high levels of psychiatric comorbidity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(9), pages 1657-1663.
    11. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    12. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    13. Daftary, Amrita, 2012. "HIV and tuberculosis: The construction and management of double stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(10), pages 1512-1519.
    14. Singer, Merrill, 1994. "Aids and the health crisis of the U.S. urban poor; the perspective of critical medical anthropology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 931-948, October.
    15. Stall, R. & Mills, T.C. & Williamson, J. & Hart, T. & Greenwood, G. & Paul, J. & Pollack, L. & Binson, D. & Osmond, D. & Catania, J.A., 2003. "Association of Co-Occurring Psychosocial Health Problems and Increased Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS among Urban Men Who Have Sex with Men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(6), pages 939-942.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Boateng, Godfred O. & Workman, Cassandra L. & Miller, Joshua D. & Onono, Maricianah & Neilands, Torsten B. & Young, Sera L., 2022. "The syndemic effects of food insecurity, water insecurity, and HIV on depressive symptomatology among Kenyan women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    2. Kazumi Tsuchiya & Olivia Toles & Christopher Levesque & Kimberly Horner & Eric Ryu & Linus Chan & Jack DeWaard, 2021. "Perceived structural vulnerabilities among detained noncitizen immigrants in Minnesota," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-22, June.
    3. Shrestha, Shikhar & Bauer, Cici X.C. & Hendricks, Brian & Stopka, Thomas J., 2022. "Spatial epidemiology: An empirical framework for syndemics research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    4. Randolph C. H. Chan & Don Operario & Winnie W. S. Mak, 2020. "Effects of HIV-Related Discrimination on Psychosocial Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behavior among People Living with HIV," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    5. S. Raquel Ramos & Geetha Beauchamp & Darrell P. Wheeler & Leo Wilton & Darren L. Whitfield & Donte T. Boyd & Lisa Hightow-Weidman & Sheldon D. Fields & LaRon E. Nelson & on behalf of the HPTN 073 Team, 2022. "Optimizing PrEP Continuance: A Secondary Analysis Examining Perceived Autonomy Support and Care Coordination Quality among Black MSM in HPTN 073," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-10, April.
    6. Danni Xia & Yingjie Chen & Ruijie Chang & Chen Xu & Xiaoyue Yu & Yujie Liu & Hui Chen & Rongxi Wang & Shangbin Liu & Xin Ge & Yuxuan Wang & Ajuan Liang & Fan Hu & Yong Cai & Ying Wang, 2022. "Psychosocial Problems and Condomless Anal Sex among Transgender Women in Two Cities of China: Study Based on the Syndemic Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Hatcher, Abigail M. & Gibbs, Andrew & McBride, Ruari-Santiago & Rebombo, Dumisani & Khumalo, Mzwakhe & Christofides, Nicola J., 2022. "Gendered syndemic of intimate partner violence, alcohol misuse, and HIV risk among peri-urban, heterosexual men in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    8. Saxena, Akshar & Mendenhall, Emily, 2022. "Syndemic thinking in large-scale studies: Case studies of disability, hypertension, and diabetes across income groups in India and China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    9. Risto Nikunlaakso & Kaisa Reuna & Kirsikka Selander & Tuula Oksanen & Jaana Laitinen, 2022. "Synergistic Interaction between Job Stressors and Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-10, October.
    10. Ouafik, Maxence R. & Buret, Laetitia & Scholtes, Beatrice, 2022. "Mapping the current knowledge in syndemic research applied to men who have sex with men: A scoping review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    11. Tomori, Cecilia & McFall, Allison M. & Solomon, Sunil S. & Srikrishnan, Aylur K. & Anand, Santhanam & Balakrishnan, P. & Mehta, Shruti H. & Celentano, David D., 2018. "Is there synergy in syndemics? Psychosocial conditions and sexual risk among men who have sex with men in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 110-116.
    12. Chakrapani, Venkatesan & Kaur, Manmeet & Tsai, Alexander C. & Newman, Peter A. & Kumar, Rajesh, 2022. "The impact of a syndemic theory-based intervention on HIV transmission risk behaviour among men who have sex with men in India: Pretest-posttest non-equivalent comparison group trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    13. Brewis, Alexandra & Wutich, Amber & Galvin, Michael & Lachaud, James, 2022. "Localizing syndemics: A comparative study of hunger, stigma, suffering, and crime exposure in three Haitian communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    14. Snodgrass, Jeffrey G. & Lacy, Michael G. & Cole, Steven W., 2022. "Internet gaming, embodied distress, and psychosocial well-being: A syndemic-syndaimonic continuum," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    15. Tsai, Alexander C. & Tomlinson, Mark & Comulada, W. Scott & Rotheram-Borus, Mary Jane, 2016. "Food insufficiency, depression, and the modifying role of social support: Evidence from a population-based, prospective cohort of pregnant women in peri-urban South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 69-77.
    16. Himmelgreen, David & Romero-Daza, Nancy & Heuer, Jacquelyn & Lucas, William & Salinas-Miranda, Abraham A. & Stoddard, Theresa, 2022. "Using syndemic theory to understand food insecurity and diet-related chronic diseases," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    17. Quinn, Katherine G., 2022. "Applying an intersectional framework to understand syndemic conditions among young Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    2. Manuel Denzer & Constantin Weiser, 2021. "Beyond F-statistic - A General Approach for Assessing Weak Identification," Working Papers 2107, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    3. Sedova, Barbora & Kalkuhl, Matthias, 2020. "Who are the climate migrants and where do they go? Evidence from rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    5. Hansen, Bruce E. & Lee, Seojeong, 2019. "Asymptotic theory for clustered samples," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 210(2), pages 268-290.
    6. Andor, Mark A. & Lange, Andreas & Sommer, Stephan, 2022. "Fairness and the support of redistributive environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Chunbei Wang & Magnus Lofstrom, 2020. "September 11 and the Rise of Necessity Self-Employment Among Mexican Immigrants," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 5-33, January.
    8. Romano, Joseph P. & Wolf, Michael, 2017. "Resurrecting weighted least squares," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 1-19.
    9. Ciani Emanuele & Fisher Paul, 2019. "Dif-in-Dif Estimators of Multiplicative Treatment Effects," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, January.
    10. Farbmacher, Helmut & Tauchmann, Harald, 2021. "Linear fixed-effects estimation with non-repeated outcomes," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 03/2021, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics, revised 2021.
    11. Barkowski, Scott, 2021. "Interpretation of nonlinear difference-in-differences: the role of the parallel trends assumption," MPRA Paper 108975, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. P. Dorian Owen, 2017. "Evaluating Ingenious Instruments for Fundamental Determinants of Long-Run Economic Growth and Development," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-33, September.
    13. Sommer, Stephan & Mattauch, Linus & Pahle, Michael, 2022. "Supporting carbon taxes: The role of fairness," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    14. Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2018. "Effects of Market Structure and Patient Choice on Hospital Quality for Planned Patients," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1118, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    15. Markku Maula & Wouter Stam, 2020. "Enhancing Rigor in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1059-1090, November.
    16. Kang, Jun-Koo & Luo, Juan & Na, Hyun Seung, 2018. "Are institutional investors with multiple blockholdings effective monitors?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(3), pages 576-602.
    17. Jen Baggs & Eugene Beaulieu & Loretta Fung & Beverly Lapham, 2016. "Firm Dynamics in Retail Trade: The Response of Canadian Retailers to Exchange Rate Shocks," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 635-666, August.
    18. Entorf, Horst & Sattarova, Liliya, 2016. "The Analysis of Prison-Prisoner Data Using Cluster-Sample Econometrics: Prison Conditions and Prisoners' Assessments of the Future," IZA Discussion Papers 10209, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    20. Arianna Gatta & Francesco Mattioli & Letizia Mencarini & Daniele Vignoli, 2019. "Employment Uncertainty and Fertility Intentions: Stability or Resilience?," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2019_12, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".

    More about this item

    Keywords

    AIDS/HIV; Social determinants;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:139:y:2015:i:c:p:26-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.