Gay Men's HIV Research Articles

Look into the HIV Epidemic of Gay Community with a Socio-Cultural Perspective: A Qualitative Study in China, 2015-2016.

BackgroundCurrent Chinese studies continue to view male homosexuality through a disease focused lens which pays limited attention to socio-cultural aspects of sexual behavior and HIV transmission. This qualitative study aimed to investigate how socio-cultural factors influence gay men’s sexual beliefs and behaviors in contemporary China, and their implications for HIV epidemic.Methods and FindingsQualitative methodology was used in this study. During 2015–2016, in-depth interviews were conducted with 61 self identified gay men in Jiangxi, Henan, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu provinces and Chongqing municipality of China. Our study revealed that: 1) influenced by Chinese traditional culture, gay men have conflicts on self-identity, which led to low self-acceptance and negative attitude on sex, and huge socio-psychological stress; 2) a generational differences within gay community was observed, reflected in varied sexual attitudes and practices as well as way for approaching new friends, both of which have implications and challenges on HIV control and prevention; 3) socio-cultural barriers, including open minds towards casual sex and nonmonogamous relationship, and low priority of health demands were widely observed and led to negative coping with AIDS among gay community.ConclusionsIt is essential to take a holistic view into gay men’s HIV epidemic in China. Socio-cultural barriers for HIV control and prevention found in this study call for serious and imperative consideration on integrated measures, including targeted efforts towards effective sex education and further inclusion of socio-cultural perspectives in HIV/AIDS interventions for gay men.

Gay men's HIV risk reduction practices: The influence of epistemic communities in HIV social and behavioral research.

Since the mid-1980s, Australian social researchers have investigated the sexual practices of gay men, describing those that protect men from HIV or put them at risk of infection. Ground-breaking (and controversial) publications have highlighted a variety of ways in which gay men protect themselves and their partners, including condom use and non-condom-based risk reduction strategies. HIV social research in Australia has been heavily influenced by a distinctive network of experts or epistemic community with shared principles and beliefs and a commitment to influencing policy and practice. This epistemic community has articulated a 'social public health' view of HIV that emphasises partnership, agency, understanding practices and reflexivity. This approach has clashed with those of other epistemic communities, notably around ideas of relapse and unsafe sex. This article uses the examples of negotiated safety and serosorting to illustrate this Australian epistemic community's approach to HIV risk reduction among gay men.

Gay men's HIV testing behaviour in Scotland

This paper reports on the social and demographic factors associated with HIV testing in gay men in Scotland. Trained sessional research staff administered a short self-complete questionnaire to men in gay bars during January and February 1999 in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. Questionnaires were completed by 2,498 men (response rate of 77.5%). Half (1,190; 50%) reported ever having been HIV antibody tested, with men in Edinburgh more likely to report testing. Testing was associated with being older (26 years plus), higher education, reporting one unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) partner, or six or more UAI partners, in the last year, genitourinary medicine clinic service use, and lifetime experience of sexually transmitted infections. There was no relationship between HIV testing and treatment optimism, or evidence of a 'post-Vancouver' effect. Over a fifth of men who said that they knew their own HIV status at last UAI had never been tested. Current testing policy needs to be challenged if there is to be an increase in the number of gay men who know their HIV status and, if tested HIV-positive, to then access antiretroviral treatments.

Consumerism in health care: the case of a voluntary sector HIV prevention organization

This paper examines the potential for, and the contradictions inherent in, voluntary sector health service providers acting as consumer representatives. The paper examines a U.K. gay men's HIV prevention organization to consider whether members are united by their experiences of using services, whether their work involves consumerist strategies, if so whether these are influential, and what tensions emerge from the dual provider/consumer role. Fieldwork was carried out in 1997–98, examining, via documents and interviews, activity between 1992 and 1997. Qualitative analysis was performed. Consumer action is shown to emerge not so much from abstract constructions of consumer interest, but more from the particularities of consumption, which become politicized more powerfully through their attachment to other interests and ideologies.

'Between what is said and what is done': Cultural constructs and young gay men's HIV vulnerability

This community-based, participatory inquiry mobilized peer ethnographers to observe their own scene and to conduct a series of focus groups in a project aiming to renew HIV prevention programming for young gay men. Ethnographers were provided training and guidance in qualitative research procedures in a process that evolved over months of observation and reflection. Eleven focus groups were conducted, totalling 71 participants. Local gay press was used to invite community feedback by voicemail. Pointed questions probed cultural sensitivities. Several layers of analysis were conducted to identify HIV vulnerabilities. Analysis of 'reality constitutive' talk revealed several culturally constructed HIV vulnerabilities, summarized as follows: individual-extraordinary challenges of personal development over gay men's life course; interpersonal-the unspoken grounds of gay relationships; social-the state of gay culture with respect to society and its local impact; structural- the transience of life in a west coast city. The use of peer ethnographers in developing knowledge for local HIV prevention generated significant data and had a transformative effect on all participants. Ethnographic field work and ethnomethodological analysis demonstrated considerable usefulness in uncovering cultural interpretations of young gay men's HIV vulnerabilities and what may be done about them.

An impact evaluation study of a community mobilisation and HIV prevention programme among gay men

Gay and bisexual men continue to be the group most affected by HIV and AIDS in the UK. In 1996, as part of an effort to address this situation, a consortium of London health authorities commissioned a gay men's HIV prevention project based on principles of community mobilisation which the research literature suggests offers considerable scope for achieving effective HIV prevention. This impact evaluation study, analysing responses to a self- completion nuestionnaire administered to a community-based sample of 674 men in London, found highest reported levels of contact with the awareness- raising interventions in the project. Much lower levels of engagement with more participative and involving activities were identified. In relation to the reported outcomes of the project, awareness-raising was achieved to a greater extent than behavioural outcomes for prevention. Future gay men's HIV prevention based on commmity mobilisation should be oriented to focus more specifically on the achievement of these more complex outcomes.

Unprotected sex in gay men's HIV non-concordant regular relationships

Unprotected sex in gay men's HIV non-concordant regular relationships