We collected detailed information on participants’ demographics, health, and patterns of social and sexual connection.
Measured Demographic measures included age, race, sex assigned at birth, gender identity, sexual orientation, and community district of residence.
Health-related measures covered HIV status, viral suppression, STI-related symptoms, use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and mpox vaccination status.
Connection measures captured each participant’s degree of engagement within queer and transgender communities, including counts of recent individual sexual contacts, recent individual physical (non-sexual) contacts, important social contacts, and including whether the participant reported recent physical or sexual contact in a group setting.
Calculated Gender modality : Gender modality was constructed using a two-step approach. Participants were first asked to indicate their current gender (options: man, woman, trans man, trans woman, non-binary, or other) and then their sex assigned at birth (male, female, or other). Table 4.1 summarizes how gender modality was derived by combining these responses.
Code
data.frame( Level =c("Cisgender man", "Cisgender woman","Transgender man","Transgender woman","Transgender man","Transgender woman","Non-binary","Another demographic"), Condition =c("gender is 'man' and assigned sex is 'male' ", "gender is 'woman' and assigned sex is 'female'","gender is 'man' and assigned sex is 'female'","gender is 'woman' and assigned sex is 'male'","gender is 'trans man' and sex is any value","gender is 'trans woman' and sex is any value","gender is 'non-binary' and sex is any value","gender is 'other' and sex is any value"))|>gt::gt()
Table 4.1: Construction of gender modality variable
Level
Condition
Cisgender man
gender is 'man' and assigned sex is 'male'
Cisgender woman
gender is 'woman' and assigned sex is 'female'
Transgender man
gender is 'man' and assigned sex is 'female'
Transgender woman
gender is 'woman' and assigned sex is 'male'
Transgender man
gender is 'trans man' and sex is any value
Transgender woman
gender is 'trans woman' and sex is any value
Non-binary
gender is 'non-binary' and sex is any value
Another demographic
gender is 'other' and sex is any value
Race–Gender : Starting with the gender modality variable, we created a race–gender variable by dividing cisgender men into white cisgender men, Latinx cisgender men, Black cisgender men, and Other cisgender men—the latter combining Asian, Pacific Islander, and other racial identities.
Community districts
Calculated Social Catchment: Social catchment is defined as the number of edges connected to a particular community district in the MPX NYC Person-place graph. It is the number of residences and gatherings contained by the district. It reflects the overall level of participant contact.
Spatial Catchment: Spatial catchment is defined as the number of paths connecting a given community district to other community districts in the MPX NYC Person-place graph (or node degree in the bipartite projection of the person-place graph onto place nodes). It represents the number of people the community district shares with others – the geographic centrality of a community district.
4.2 Edge Characteristics
Each participant reported the location of their residence. Additionally, those who reported recent physical or sexual contact in a group setting reported the locations where that contact happened. Each residence or gathering is represented as an edge linking a participant to the community district containing the residence or gathering. Each edge was associated with the following characteristics:
Measured Edge type : Each edge was categorized as either a residence edge or a gathering edge.
Gathering type : Response options included dance party, sex party, darkroom, sports event, concert, theatre or show, private residence, sex club, bathhouse, park, or another type of event. This variable is null for residence edges.
Sexual Contact : Response options included yes — indicating that sexual contact occurred at a given gathering — or no. This variable is null for residence edges.
Calculated Distance from home : We constructed an approximate measure of distance from home to each gathering. This variable is null for residence edges. Distances fell into the categories: same community district as the participant’s residence; different community district but within the same borough; or different borough entirely.