Social research contributing to the Australian HIV response

World AIDS Day, held on 1 December each year, aims to encourage Australians to educate themselves and others about HIV, take action to reduce the transmission of HIV by promoting prevention strategies, and ensure that people living with HIV can participate fully in the life of the community, free from stigma and discrimination.

For World AIDS Day 2017, the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) has compiled a selection of publications by staff that highlights the most important current issues in understanding the social aspects of HIV prevention and care.

Included in the collection are articles that explore changes in HIV prevention strategies, engagement with HIV treatment and care, and HIV risks associated with drug use.

"This impressive collection shows that social research contributes greatly to understanding the complexity and nuance of HIV - in relation to sex, drug use, health systems, legal issues, stigma and discrimination and much more," adds Professor Carla Treloar, Director of the Centre. "As we pause on World AIDS Day to remember those who went before us and consider what more there is to do, CSRH staff are proud to play our role in providing rigorous and socially-informed research."

It’s Your Love Life: a new periodic survey on sexual health among young people in NSW
Philippe Adam, Mandy Schippers, Heather-Marie Schmidt, Kristel Modderman, Carolyn Slattery, Jane Estoesta, Carolyn Murray, Gemma Hearnshaw, Dean Murphy, John de Wit

Negotiating trust and struggling for control: everyday narratives of unwanted disclosure of HIV status among people with HIV in Australia
Stephen Bell, Peter Aggleton, Sean Slavin

Sexual agency, risk and vulnerability: a scoping review of young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health
Stephen Bell, Peter Aggleton, James Ward, Lisa Maher

Young people at risk of transitioning to injecting: what do they know about where to get sterile needles?
Joanne Bryant, Jeanne Ellard, John Howard, Carla Treloar

Progress and challenges in ending HIV and AIDS in Australia
Martin Holt

Individual versus community-level risk compensation following preexposure prophylaxis of HIV
Martin Holt, Dean Murphy

Beliefs in antiretroviral treatment and self-efficacy in HIV management are associated with distinctive HIV treatment trajectories
Limin Mao, John de Wit, Philippe Adam, Jeffrey J. Post, Sean Slavin, Aaron Cogle, Edwina Wright, Michael Kidd

“So Much Is at Stake”: professional views on engaging heterosexually identified men who have sex with men with sexual health care in Australia
Christy E. Newman, Asha Persson, Pene Manolas, Heather-Marie Ann Schmidt, Catriona Ooi, Alison Rutherford, John de Wit

Breaking binaries? Biomedicine and serostatus borderlands among couples with mixed HIV status
Asha Persson, Christy E. Newman, Jeanne Ellard

Families living with blood-borne viruses: the case for extending the concept of “serodiscordance”
Asha Persson, Christy E. Newman, Myra Hamilton, Joanne Bryant, Jack Wallace, kylie valentine

Challenging perceptions of “straight”: heterosexual men who have sex with men and the cultural politics of sexual identity categories
Asha Persson, Christy E. Newman, Pene Manolas, Martin Holt, Denton Callander, Tina Gordon, John de Wit

Enabling positive change: progress and setbacks in HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights
Purnima Mane, Peter Aggleton