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LONDON, September 29 (Newswise/British
Medical Journal) –
The prevalence of “risky” sex in Scotland has doubled in the space of six
years, while unfounded confidence in the HIV negative status of casual
partners has also increased, reveals research in Sexually Transmitted
Infections.
The findings are based on serial
surveys of 6500 men in Edinburgh and Glasgow, who visited a selection of gay
bars in the two cities.
The men were questioned about their
sexual behaviour as well as their attitudes to HIV infection and its
treatment in 1996, 1999, and 2002.
Around two thirds of the
respondents were 26 or older, and four out of 10 said they visited gay bars
once or twice a week.
The results showed that there was
no significant change in behaviour between 1996 and 1999, but between 1999
and 2002, rates of unprotected anal sex rose 10%, as did levels of the
activity with casual or multiple partners.
In 1996, almost 11% of those
surveyed said they had unprotected anal sex with casual partners. By 2002,
this figure was almost 19%.
The likelihood of unprotected sex
with casual partners was greater among those men who said they visited gay
bars frequently and those who agreed with the statement: "I am less worried
about HIV infection now that treatments have improved."
Among those men who took an HIV
test, only around one in five claimed that they "always" knew the HIV status
of their casual partners.
While many researchers have
reported that increasing optimism about the effectiveness of treatment has
increased risky sexual behaviour among gay men, closer analysis of the
findings showed that this did not fully explain the trends.
The increasing prevalence of
unprotected anal sex with casual partners was actually higher among those
who were not optimistic about HIV treatment.
The findings prompt the authors to
call for renewed national efforts to spread the public health message about
the need for HIV prevention to counteract “prevention fatigue.”
Click
here to read the paper in full:
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