Potential sexual addiction (psa) among men who have sex with men who attended an stc clinic in a tertiary care hospital, sri lanka

Abstract

<h3>Objectives</h3> To describe the prevalence of PSA and its associating factors among MSMs who attend an STD clinic in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka. <h3>Methods</h3> A cross-sectional study among 240 MSM clinic attendees was conducted using the PATHOS screening tool via an interviewer-administered questionnaire to assess the prevalence of PSA. PATHOS consists of six items found in both the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST) and its revision, and the cut-off value is 3. This is the first study conducted in Sri Lanka using this tool <h3>Results</h3> The mean age of participants was 29.38 years. (SD 9.7). The majority were unmarried and had male partners only. 88% had 1 or more partners in the last 3 months. 24.6% were diagnosed with a new STD and among them, 3 were diagnosed with HIV. 82 MSMs had PATHOS cut-off value, giving a prevalence of 34% PSA. Two third of HIV infected and 40.6% of the MSMs with an STI diagnosis had PSA. 75.6% felt that their life was controlled by sexual desire, and 40% felt depressed following sex. The presence of PSA was not significantly associated with the presence of an STI (p=0.224623), type of partners (p=0.289935), number of partners during the last 3 months(p=0.609), 1 year(p=0.631), or lifetime (p=0.270). But, potential sexual addiction was significantly associated with behaviors such as insertive and receptive anal sex (p=0.041046 & p=0.037916) and feeling depressed following a sexual act (p <0.00001). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Potential sexual addiction is high among MSMs who attended this STD clinic which needs further psychosexual assessment. Incorporating methods to identify and address this among the MSMs will lead to increased quality of sexual health care. <h3>Conflicts of Interest</h3> None