Is Group Sex a Higher-Risk Setting for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Compared with Dyadic Sex among Men Who Have Sex with Men?
BACKGROUND:
Group
sex has been suggested as a potential high-risk setting for HIV and other
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among men who have sex with men (MSM).
We investigated whether group sex is associated with lower condom use during
anal sex and higher proportions of STIs compared with dyadic sex among
HIV-negative MSM between 2009 and 2012.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional
data from 7 data waves of the Amsterdam Cohort Studies were used. The sample
consisted of 465 MSM who either reported both group and dyadic sex (at n = 706
visits) or dyadic sex only (at n = 1339 visits) in the preceding 6 months.
Logistic regression with generalized estimating equations was used to
investigate the association between sexual setting (group vs. dyadic sex),
condomless anal sex, and STI.
RESULTS:
Group sex
was reported at 35% (706/2045) of visits. Condomless sex was more often
reported during dyadic than group sex (odds ratio, 3.64 95% confidence
interval, 2.57-5.16). Men who had group sex were more likely diagnosed as
having gonorrhea compared with men with dyadic sex (odds ratio, 1.71; 95%
confidence interval, 1.08-2.97), but this effect was not retained in the
multivariate model.
CONCLUSIONS:
Results
demonstrate within-person differences in sexual behavior during group and
dyadic sex among MSM. Men were more likely to use condoms during group sex than
during dyadic sex. Thus, for some, group sex may not necessarily be risky for
HIV infection compared with dyadic sex. However, group sex may be a higher-risk
setting for acquiring STIs other than HIV, such as gonorrhea. Group sex
encounters should be recognized as distinct sexual settings with specific risk
characteristics that need to be addressed accordingly.
- 1From the *Department of Infectious Diseases Research and Prevention, Public Health Service Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; †Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, CINIMA, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and ‡HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, New York, NY.
No comments:
Post a Comment