A survey on high-risk behaviors and prevalence of sexually transmitted disease among men who have sex with men in Tianjin, 2016

Abstract

Objective To understand the prevalence of syphilis and the associated factors among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Tianjin. Methods From April to August 2016, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among MSM who was over 16 years old and had oral or anal sex with men in the last 6 months in Tianjin, with a face-to-face interview and blood samples were collected. The demographic and sexual characteristics of the MSM was collected, meanwhile HIV and syphilis were tested. A total of 853 valid questionnaires were finally enrolled. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the infection of syphilis and the behaviors. Results The average age of the respondents was 31.7±9.4 years old and the majority of them were under 35 years old, accounted for 70.1% (598/853), while 65.4% (558/853) of the respondents used condom consistently when they had anal sex in the last six months. The HIV positive rate was 3.4% and the rate of syphilis was 9.5% among MSM. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the possibility of syphilis infection is lower among MSM who had knowledge of HIV and STD (OR=0.46, 95%CI: 0.23-0.92), and among those who received intervention of HIV/STD in the last year (OR=0.40, 95%CI: 0.23-0.71). The possibility of syphilis infection was higher in case of commercially homosexual behaviors in the last six months (OR=2.75, 95%CI: 1.31-5.77), and STD infections in the last year (OR=11.07, 95%CI: 5.57-26.83). The possibility of syphilis infection increased along with the increment of anal intercourse in the last week, (OR=1.45, 95%CI: 1.03-2.03). Conclusions The infection rate of syphilis among MSM was relatively high, and the associated factors included the knowledge awareness of HIV and STD, the frequency of anal intercourse in the last week, having commercial homosexual sex in the last six months, infected STD in the last year and having received intervention about HIV/STD in the last year. Key words: Syphilis; Sexual behavior; Cross-sectional studies; MSM