Linkage and Retention in HIV Care among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the United States

Men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be disproportionately affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. While the MSM population does better than other HIV infection risk groups with regard to linkage to and retention in care, little is known about engagement in care outcomes for important subpopulations of MSM. There is also a dearth of research on engagement in care strategies specific to the MSM population. Key MSM subpopulations in the United States on which to focus future research efforts include racial/ethnic minority, young, and substance-using MSM. Health care systems navigation may offer a promising engagement in care strategy for MSM and should be further evaluated. As is the case for HIV-infected populations in general, future research should also focus on identifying the best metrics for measuring engagement in care. Since the earliest days of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, men who have sex with men (MSM) have been profoundly affected by the disease [1, 2]. MSM make up the largest risk group of persons living with HIV in the United States, accounting for nearly half of infections (48.1%), despite being onl