Social cohesion has varying effects on health. We investigated the association of perceived neighborhood social cohesion with HIV viral suppression using individual-level data from the New York City HIV registry and surveillance-based interviews (n = 92). Suppression was achieved within 12 months of HIV diagnosis by 60 percent of persons perceiving low cohesion and 71 percent of those perceiving high (p = 0.31). Controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics and neighborhood poverty, per proportional hazards regression, cohesion was not associated with suppression (adjusted hazards ratio (95% confidence interval) for high versus low cohesion: 0.79 (0.49-1.28)). Cohesion may have heterogeneous effects on HIV medication adherence.
Keywords: HIV; epidemiology; neighborhood; social participation; viral load.