Examining Barriers and Facilitators to Physical Activity Among a Diverse Cohort of MSM Living with HIV.

Owing to extensive innovations in HIV treatment and care, research attention has shifted to maintaining and improving health instead of survival. Physical activity (PA) is an area of growing focus and importance among people living with HIV (PWH). However, there remains a paucity of research exploring PA within diverse groups of PWH. The current study aims to address this gap in a cohort of men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV. Using data from a longitudinal cohort (= 271 at baseline and = 168 at the 6-month follow-up), this study examines factors (e.g., pain, sleep, mental health, social determinants of health) associated with PA. Linear regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) are used to assess these associations. Sleep deficiency along with increased pain, depression, anxiety, and stress were found to be associated with reduced PA, while greater resilience was linked to more PA. A cross-sectional pathway, pain-sleep-mental health-resilience-PA, was confirmed at both time points. In the longitudinal SEM, in addition to the cross-sectional and autoregressive pathways, a feedback path revealed that current PA increased sleep deficiencies in the future. Our data were consistent with previous research regarding barriers and facilitators of PA among PWH. Patterns observed are consistent from baseline and 6-month follow-up. Resilience emerged as a unique factor associated with PA levels. Future interventions should seek to determine how and in what way resilience may promote PA levels among PWH.