Objective To investigate sexual partner network and the prevailing of high risk behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM), to explore how human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are transmitted among this population and passed to the general population, so as to provide basis for HIV/STDs prevention and control.
Methods MSM were recruited from voluntary counseling and testing clinics and venues of MSM by snowball sampling, and were interviewed face-to-face with anonymous questionnaires.
Results Among the 151 MSM surveyed, 30 subjects (19.9%) had female sexual partners in the past six months, 91 (60.3%) had boyfriends, 76 (50.3%) had occasional male partners, 77 (51.0%) had one-night-stand male partners, and 10 (6.6%) provided commercial sexual services for male clients. Their rate of high risk behaviors was 53.3%, 69.2%, 57.9%, 50.6% and 70.0%, respectively, and that with boyfriends was significantly higher than that with one-night-stand male partners (P=0.014). In the past six months, 58.9% of the subjects had two or more types of sexual partners. Among the 30 HIV-positives, the proportion of having occasional male partners and one-nightstand male partners was 53.3% and 63.3% respectively, and their rate of high risk behaviors was 50.0% and 63.2% respectively. The rate of high risk behaviors with boyfriends of the HIV-positives was significantly lower than that of the HIV-negatives (P=0.029).
Conclusion MSM have varied and complex sexual partner networks and a high rate of sexual behaviors with high risks, which not only facilitates HIV transmission within MSM population, but also plays as a bridge role in passing HIV to general population.
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