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HIV Testing Among a Representative Community Sample of Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men in Vancouver, Canada

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Abstract

Earlier HIV diagnosis allows for improved treatment outcomes and secondary prevention. It is recommended that all individuals know their HIV status and that those at higher risk test more frequently. Using a representative community sample of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), we aimed to: (1) determine the proportion of GBMSM who have tested in the past 2 years, (2) determine reasons for testing and never having tested, and (3) explore correlates of testing. Of 535 eligible participants, 80.0% reported having had an HIV test in the past 2 years, most commonly as part of a regular testing schedule. The most common reason for not testing was low perceived HIV risk. Bisexual and older GBMSM, as well as those who lived outside of Vancouver, were less likely to have tested in the past 2 years. Rapid point-of-care testing may help improve testing rates and was shown to effectively engage some hard-to-reach GBMSM (e.g., those who had not tested for other STIs) in this sample.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Momentum Health Study participants, office staff, and community advisory board, as well as our community partner agencies, Health Initiative for Men, YouthCO HIV & Hep C Society, and Positive Living Society of BC.

Funding

This study is funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA031055-01A1) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (MOP-107544, 143342, PJT-153139). HLA is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Grant # MFE-152443). NJL was supported by a CANFAR/CTN Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. DMM and NJL are supported by Scholar Awards from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (#5209, #16863).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, 505-1200 Burrard St., Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2C7, Canada

    Heather L. Armstrong, Lu Wang, Julia Zhu, Nathan J. Lachowsky, Kiffer G. Card, Robert S. Hogg & David M. Moore

  2. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Heather L. Armstrong & David M. Moore

  3. School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

    Nathan J. Lachowsky

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Kiffer G. Card & Robert S. Hogg

  5. British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, Canada

    Jason Wong

  6. Community-Based Research Centre for Gay Men’s Health, Vancouver, Canada

    Jody Jollimore

  7. Health Initiative for Men, Vancouver, Canada

    Joshua Edward

  8. Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

    Eric A. Roth

Authors
  1. Heather L. Armstrong
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  2. Lu Wang
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  3. Julia Zhu
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  4. Nathan J. Lachowsky
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  5. Kiffer G. Card
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  6. Jason Wong
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  7. Jody Jollimore
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  8. Joshua Edward
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  9. Eric A. Roth
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  10. Robert S. Hogg
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  11. David M. Moore
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather L. Armstrong.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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. All study procedures received ethical approval from the research ethics boards of the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.

Informed Consent

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

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Cite this article

Armstrong, H.L., Wang, L., Zhu, J. et al. HIV Testing Among a Representative Community Sample of Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men in Vancouver, Canada. AIDS Behav 23, 347–358 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2259-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2259-2

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