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Awareness and Attitudes Regarding Microbicides and Nonoxynol-9 use in a Probability Sample of Gay Men

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Abstract

A household probability sample of 879 adult gay and other men who have sex with men in San Francisco underwent phone interviews. Approximately, half reported recent unprotected anal intercourse (UAI). Yet, lubricant use was high, a behavior that may facilitate future adoption of topical microbicide delivered by a lubricant gel. Despite warnings against Nonoxynol-9 (N-9), 26% of respondents reported still using it. Microbicide awareness was higher among men reporting UAI than among consistent condom users. Scenarios presenting microbicides “as effective as condoms,” “nearly as effective,” or “less effective but better than nothing” produced wide variability in willingness to use them, which may have implications for microbicide acceptability. HIV-infected men and those who reported UAI showed greater microbicide acceptance.

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Acknowledgments

The Urban Men’s Health Study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant R01-MH54320 and California State Office on AIDS contract 01-16085 (Principal Investigator, Joseph A. Catania). The authors acknowledge the support of a center grant from NIMH P50-MH43520 (HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies; Center Director, Anke A. Ehrhardt) and a postdoctoral training grant that supported Dr. Lin (T32 MH19139). They thank Ivan Balan for his helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Alex Carballo-Diéguez, Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Peter Lin & Curtis Dolezal

  2. Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Lance Pollack & Joseph Catania

Authors
  1. Alex Carballo-Diéguez
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  2. Lucia F. O’Sullivan
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  3. Peter Lin
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  4. Curtis Dolezal
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  5. Lance Pollack
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  6. Joseph Catania
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alex Carballo-Diéguez.

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Carballo-Diéguez, A., O’Sullivan, L.F., Lin, P. et al. Awareness and Attitudes Regarding Microbicides and Nonoxynol-9 use in a Probability Sample of Gay Men. AIDS Behav 11, 271–276 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-006-9128-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-006-9128-0

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