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Seeking Male Sexual Partners via Internet and Traditional Venues among Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men: Implications for HIV Risk Reduction Interventions

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Abstract

The dynamic nature of finding male sexual partners (sex-finding) among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) may play a substantial role in the HIV epidemic. We compared characteristics and behaviors of MSM who mostly sought sex via the Internet versus traditional venues in a cross-sectional survey among 3588 Chinese MSM. We assessed the sociodemographic predictors and compared high-risk behaviors of using Internet versus traditional venues for sex-finding. Compared to non-Internet MSM, Internet-user MSM were more likely to have been: younger, currently single, better educated, health-insured, with higher income, with Beijing residency (‘Hukou’), living longer in the city, HIV-positive, ever using drug and engaging in condomless receptive anal sex. Internet sex-finding users were less likely to be sexually active for longer duration, drink alcohol, drink alcohol before sex, or ever have sex with women. Knowledge of differential characteristics of various sex-finding MSM can help design targeted interventions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R01AI094562 and R34AI091446. We thank volunteers from Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group, staff from Xicheng and Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, for their assistance in recruiting the participants, collecting data, and conducting focus group discussions.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Suite 725, 2525 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

      Yu Liu, Han-Zhu Qian, Lu Yin, Chen Zhang & Sten H. Vermund

    2. Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

      Juan Wang & Hongyan Lu

    3. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

      Han-Zhu Qian & Sten H. Vermund

    4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

      Hongjie Liu

    5. State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (SKLID), Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

      Yuhua Ruan & Yiming Shao

    6. Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

      Sten H. Vermund

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    1. Yu Liu
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    Correspondence to Sten H. Vermund.

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    Ethical Approval

    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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    Yu Liu, Juan Wang contributed equally to this work.

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    Liu, Y., Wang, J., Qian, HZ. et al. Seeking Male Sexual Partners via Internet and Traditional Venues among Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men: Implications for HIV Risk Reduction Interventions. AIDS Behav 20, 2222–2230 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1371-4

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1371-4

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