Percent of Male-Male Unmarried Partner Households

As briefly described previously, 55% of individuals living with diagnosed HIV/AIDS in Maine contracted the disease through MSM.  Additionally, in 2004 alone, almost three-quarters (72%) of all new HIV diagnoses were a result of MSM (7).  Since MSM is clearly the most significant mode of HIV transmission in Maine, it was hypothesized that AIDS rates would positively correlate with the percent of male-male unmarried partner households in select cities and towns.

As predicted, and as the table below, the scatter plot below, and the household type map suggest, a significant positive correlation does indeed exist between percentages of male-male unmarried partner households and AIDS rates.  In order to be considered significant at an α-level of .01, with 15 degrees of freedom (df = n-2), r must be greater than .605 (see correlation table 1).  With an r-value of .90, the correlation between the two variables in question substantially exceeds this threshold.  Nevertheless, like the correlation between AIDS rates and percentages of Black citizens, closer examination of the scatter plot below indicates that the town of Ogunquit is once again a clear outlier.  When this data point is removed from the analysis, the r-value decreases to .35 and is no longer significant at even the α = .05 level (see correlation table 2).  This extreme difference in r-values when Ogunquit is included in the correlational analysis versus when it is not provides further support for a multi-sided epidemic in Maine.  Commonly known as the home to the majority of Maine’s wealthy, gay, White males, Ogunquit has a far greater percentage of male-male partner households than any other city or town being considered (i.e., 2.54 percent, compared to the next highest percentage of .62 in Portland).  However, once outside of Ogunquit, unmarried male-male partner households are no longer seem to be substantial contributing variable to Maine’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.