DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37603.v1
title: Multilevel Influences on HIV and Substance Use in a YMSM Cohort (RADAR) - Visit #1, Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2015-2018
title: Version 1

description: The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded RADAR in 2014 to collect multilevel, longitudinal data and biospecimens from an ethnically and racially diverse cohort of young, sexual and gender minorities (SGM; e.g., men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, gender non-conforming individuals) who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) (current core cohort n=1,113). The primary objective of this study is to apply a multilevel perspective to a syndemic of health issues associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in this population. The multilevel design focuses on individual, dyadic (i.e., sexual and romantic relationships), network (i.e., social, drug, and sexual connections) and biologic factors that may be associated with HIV. The cohort contains both HIV-negative and HIV-positive individuals, which allows for the development of a repository of biospecimens and HIV sequence data from both pre-infection and post-infection visits that will help facilitate future projects evaluating substance use, HIV risk, and pathogenesis. A multiple cohort, accelerated longitudinal design was utilized by initially enrolling two existing SGM cohorts and then expanded through the use of convenience and snowball sampling methods. Enrollment criteria varied slightly based on the recruitment method, but overall inclusion criteria required participants to be AMAB, between 16 and 29 years of age, report having had sex with a man in the prior year or identify as a SGM, live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and be an English speaker. Study recruitment opened in February 2015 and closed in September 2017, except for the recruitment of cohort members' serious partners which will continue for the remainder of the study in order to build a dynamic dyadic network. Participants are followed through the developmental period of late adolescence to early adulthood, which is a critical period of initiation and acceleration of sexual behavior and substance use. Study visits occur every six months.
description: The primary objective of this study is to apply a multilevel perspective to a syndemic of health issues associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in this population.
description: A multiple cohort, accelerated longitudinal design was utilized by initially enrolling two existing SGM cohorts and then expanded through the use of convenience and snowball sampling methods. Enrollment criteria varied slightly based on the recruitment method, but overall inclusion criteria required participants to be AMAB, between 16 and 29 years of age, report having had sex with a man in the prior year or identify as a SGM, live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and be an English speaker. Study recruitment opened in February 2015 and closed in September 2017, except for the recruitment of cohort members' serious partners which will continue for the remainder of the study in order to build a dynamic dyadic network. Participants are followed through the developmental period of late adolescence to early adulthood, which is a critical period of initiation and acceleration of sexual behavior and substance use. Study visits occur every six months.
description: A multiple cohort, accelerated longitudinal design was utilized by initially enrolling two existing cohorts of sexual and gender minorities and then expanded with an additional recruitment group through the use of convenience and snowball sampling methods. Inclusion criteria required participants to be AMAB, between 16 and 29 years of age, report having had sex with a man in the prior year or identify as a SGM, live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and be an English speaker.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Psychosocial Data for Public Use DS2: Psychosocial Data for Restricted Use DS3: Partner Survey Data for Public Use DS4: Partner Survey Data for Restricted Use DS5: Biomedical Data for Restricted Use
description: Young sexual and gender minorities who were assigned male at birth and recruited from the Chicago metropolitan area between 2015-2018. Smallest Geographic Unit: Metropolitan area
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); computer-assisted self interview (CASI); web-based surveyOnly data from cisgender males (n=1,026) at their first visit, which was collected between February 2015 and December 2018, are available in the current release. Future releases will contain data collected from participants enrolled in the study after December 2018 as well as data collected from follow-up visits.