Another reason we love technology! Read all about how we are developing a voice-based computer-delivered intervention to help reduce drinking among college students.

Staying true to our lab, we’ve gathered data on HIV testing habits among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Northeastern Unites States. We found that racial/ethnic minority MSM, those with a college degree and those who engaged in more recent HIV-risky behavior had higher odds of having tested in the last 12 months. Conversely, the odds of having tested in the last 12 months were lower among those who reported drinking alcohol heavily, when compared with more moderate drinkers, highlighting yet another potential impact of alcohol on HIV outcomes.

We've known for awhile that computers can help counsel patients to make better decisions about their health. But, most of the systems built for this purpose so far require users to interact with the "counselor" using a "point-and-click" interface. That is, patients enter their responses to the computer's prompts by clicking, pressing, typing, and so on. Obviously, most typical counseling interactions with a person simply allow patients to speak naturally about their experiences, and this may be a more potent way of interacting that leads to better outcomes. In a small study, we tested whether a computer counseling system that used a natural speech interface helped heavy-drinking college students reduce their alcohol use and alcohol-related problems, when compared with a "point-and-click" interface. Find out more about our results here!

Some might say, "No, duh!" But, we conducted one of the first studies to explore whether specific levels of drinking on a given day increased the odds of engaging in behavior that can transmit HIV in gay/bi men who are living with HIV. In this paper, published in the journal AIDS & Behavior, we showed that drinking more than 5 drinks on a given day increased the odds of engaging in sex that could transmit HIV that same day more than two-fold, and having more than 12 drinks increased those odds over 6-fold. These findings are in stark contrast to similar studies of straight men and women, which don't show such pronounced increases. 

In our ongoing effort to understand exactly why alcohol and drug use increases the risk for sexually-transmitted infections like HIV, a paper we published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors showed that some gay/bi men may drink specifically to feel less inhibited about meeting romantic partners, and that these men may end up drinking more heavily than others. This tendency could also be one factor that increases risk for STIs and HIV in these men, but more carefully-designed studies are needed to explore this. 

It's been widely accepted that drinking heavily increases the risk for sexually-transmitted infections, in part because it's assumed that intoxication leads to making riskier decisions about sex. But, in a paper we recently published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, we showed that there is little evidence that heavy drinking specifically increases risky decisions about sex, but this is specific to straight men and women who drink a lot. 

In this review we published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine, we explored the scientific evidence for using computers and other electronic devices to help people take their HIV medications regularly and on time. Good news, even simple tools can be helpful! Imagine the potential that more sophisticated programs might have! 

Gay and bisexual men suffer from alcohol-related problems just like everyone else, but often experience more severe health-related consequences due to these problems than others. In this review we published in Drug and Alcohol Reviews, we suggest that more research is needed to explore how well common treatments for alcohol use disorders work in gay/bi men.

In a paper we recently published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, we showed that one way alcohol intoxication may lead to riskier choices about sex is that sex-related cues may command more of your attention than when you're sober. This could make sex seem more impelling, even at the expense of its consequences. 

Just published: Our study of alcohol use and risky sexual decisions among college students shows that the specific reasons people drink may increase their risk for having more casual sex partners.