Syndemics of HIV with mental illness and other noncommunicable diseases: a research agenda to address the gap between syndemic theory and current research practice

Recent studies referring to syndemics of HIV and NCDs often do not meet criteria for a syndemic framework. Future research needs to assure minimum criteria are met: articulation of two or more health conditions, descriptions of social/geographic context that impact the relationship among these conditions, a syndemic model with proposed mechanisms for interaction in the particular social/geographic context, and a population or context without the observed syndemic. Expanding the current syndemic research beyond the United States context and beyond mental illness also would enrich the field.