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HIV Serosorting Practices among HIV-uninfected Gay and Bisexual Men in California: San Francisco Bay Area Residents vs Circuit Party Attendees
Albert Liu*1,2, P Kittredge1, H Raymond1, and S Buchbinder1,2
1San Francisco Dept of Publ Hlth, CA, US and 2Univ of California, San Francisco, US
Background: HIV serosorting has gained recent
attention as a community-originated, but currently unproven HIV prevention
strategy. The prevalence of this practice among HIV-uninfected gay/bisexual men
has not been well characterized and could vary among different populations of
gay/bisexual men. We compared HIV serosorting practices between a
population-based sample and a high-risk circuit party sample of HIV-uninfected
gay/bisexual men in California.
Methods: We collected information about HIV
serosorting practices from 766 gay/bisexual men self-reporting a negative or
unknown HIV serostatus. Using time location probability sampling, between
February and May 2006, we sampled 403 men residing in the San Francisco Bay
Area, and 363 men attending a circuit party in Palm Springs or San Diego, C alifornia in 2006. We used χ2 comparisons to evaluate
differences between the 2 populations.
Results: Compared with San Francisco men, the
circuit party men reported higher rates of recreational drug use (61% in vs 71%,
respectively; p <0.01) and unprotected anal sex (37% vs 53%, respectively;
p <0.01) in the past 6 months. Circuit party men were more likely to
have a primary partner (47% vs 39%, p = 0.02) and, although they were
more likely to report having unprotected anal sex in the past 6 months with HIV–
partners only (36% vs 24%, p <0.01), rates of serodiscordant
unprotected anal sex were similar between populations (17% circuit party vs 13%
San Francisco, p = 0.3). Circuit party men were more likely to report
that they would not have sex with a known HIV+ partner (47% vs 29%, p
<0.01). Overall, 39% men reported always asking partners their HIV status,
20% asked most of the time, 14% sometimes asked, and 24% never/rarely asked;
rates did not differ between populations.
Conclusions: HIV serosorting practices were common
in 2 distinct populations of HIV– gay/bisexual men and were more
prevalent among circuit party attendees vs a population-based sample in California. Population-related differences in HIV serosorting should be further explored
and may play a role in tailoring HIV prevention interventions for
HIV-uninfected gay/bisexual men.
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