Barcelona 2013
Menu
AIDSImpact.com
Conference Details
Authors
International Committee
Plenary Speakers
Presenting Speakers
Programme
Sessions
Scientific Committee
Acknowledgements
| Abstract #574 - E-Posters English | ||||
|
Session: 50.92: E-Posters English (Poster) on Sunday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Scott Rhodes - Wake Forest School of Medicine, United States |
||||
| Additional Authors: Dr. Jordi Casabona, Sra Cristina Sanclemente, Dra. Anna Esteve, Dra. Victoria Gonzalez, Grupo HIVITS TS, | ||||
| Aim: For many men who have sex with men (MSM), the Internet has emerged as an important tool for social networking, meeting friends and sexual partners, and building community. CyBER/testing was an online social network intervention found to increase testing among MSM during our preliminary single-site pilot test. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Our community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership is currently implementing and evaluating the CyBER/testing intervention using a repeated cross-sectional matched pair community randomized design with intervention and delayed-intervention arms. The intervention was implemented for 12 months within 2 geographically focused intervention communities through 4 preexisting online social networking sites; it is currently being implemented in delayed-intervention communities. During implementation in the intervention communities, we collected all intervention dialogue between the study interventionist and participants in the social networking sites. We used grounded theory to analyze transcripts to understand and characterize the intervention. | ||||
| Results / Comments: At baseline, the mean age of online participants was 42 (range=18-70) years. Slightly over half self-identified as gay; 30% self-identified as bisexual; and 11% reported being heterosexual/straight. About 70% self-identified as White/European; 15% as African American/black; and 9% as Hispanic/Latino. About three-fourths reported ever being tested for HIV, and 9.6% reported being HIV positive. Of those who reported anal sex with a man, only 39% reported consistent condom use during the past 12 months; of those who reported vaginal or anal sex with a woman, only 10% reported consistent condom use during the past 12 months. From the qualitative data, 3 domains emerged: (1) Characteristics of online MSM (e.g., online MSM regarded online sites as facilitating finding sexual partners quickly, many were not ?out? to others about their sexual orientation and/or online behavior, and some were new to the sites and relied on the interventionist for guidance on online culture and language); (2) Building trust and rapport was key (e.g., some online MSM questioned the interventionist?s role and were initially skeptical about his intentions, and online MSM shared personal information and disclosed their risks and worries after building trust with interventionist through engaging in ?small talk? and having exchanged non-HIV-related personal information with the interventionist to ?get to know? him); and (3) Online MSM have profound prevention needs (e.g., online MSM had basic questions about HIV transmission, care, and treatment; they had specific questions about symptoms they were experiencing; and they had practical questions about testing, including: venues and locations to be tested, costs and procedures, time for test and results, and confidentiality of testing and results; and some online MSM wanted information about HIV+ resources, including insurance, medication, providers, support groups, dating sites, and volunteer opportunities). | ||||
| Discussion: Findings suggest that online MSM are at increased risk for HIV. Online social network interventions for gay and bisexual men and other MSM are promising. Our qualitative findings suggest that although trust and rapport building take time, the subsequent impact may be profound. Online MSM continue to need targeted HIV prevention efforts, and Internet outreach using online social networking sites may reach some MSM who are not reached through other strategies. | ||||
| Go Back | ||||