Avoidance as a Predictor of the Biological Course of HIV Infection Over a 7-Year Period in Gay Men

The present study prospectively investigated the relation between avoidance coping and active cognitive and behavioral coping and the progression of HIV infection over 7 years in 181 gay men. Findings revealed that for a number of medical and behavioral factors, (a) avoidance coping predicted a lower rate of decline in CD4 cells, (b) the proportional hazard (PH) attributable to avoidance of developing a syncytium-inducing HIV variant was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53 − 0.99, p < .05), and (c) the PH attributable to avoidance of dropping below 200 CD4 cells/μl was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.50 − 0.89, p < .01). Avoidance coping was not related to the development of AIDS-defining clinical symptoms. Active cognitive and behavioral coping was not related to the outcome measures.