Seeking and engaging in internet sex: a survey of patients attending genitourinary medicine clinics in Plymouth and in London

Abstract

We conducted a survey of patients attending two GUM clinics to evaluate the use of the internet for seeking sexual partners and for seeking on-line sexual health information. Prevalence of internet sex-seeking (ISS) was 11% (57/500) in Plymouth and 21% (50/237) in London. ISS was more common among men who have sex with men (MSM) (43/92 = 47%) than men who have sex with women (MSW) (38/280 = 14%, P< 0.0001) and more common amongst MSW than women who have sex with men (WSM) (25/350 = 7%, P = 0.007). In both samples, accessing sexual health information online was associated with ISS (Plymouth, P = 0.05 and London, P = 0.001), as was reporting more than 10 sexual partners per year (Plymouth and London, P < 0.001). It remains to be seen whether the potential sexual health promotion benefits of the internet could balance potential risks of STI acquisition.

Internet and Email Use Among STD Clinic Patients

“…On the other hand, a recent analysis found that heterosexuals who used the Internet to find partners were at lower risk for STDs than other heterosexual STD clinic patients21, highlighting the complexity of how the Internet may affect STD risk and transmission dynamics. Little information is available regarding Internet and email use among STD clinic patients and the potential utility of using both to improve clinical care and facilitate STD-related research17–19. The Internet has been used to arrange for syphilis testing and provide test results10, 14, to follow-up on partners of reported syphilis cases13, to provide test results to all clients of an STD clinic22, and to collect sexual diary information for a genital human papilloma virus research study23.…”

“…In 1999, 40% of San Francisco STD clinic patients reported having Internet access at home and, of these persons, 84% had accessed the Internet in the past 6 months17. In 2000–2001, 46% of Denver Metro Health STD clinic patients had Internet access, of these 73% at home18, while in 2002–2003, 77% of patients at a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic in Plymouth, U.K. and 90% of patients at a GUM clinic in London, U.K. had Internet access19. In 2006, 63% of MSM seen in a Seattle, Washington public HIV clinic reported home Internet access28.…”

“…Although Internet access is present in 62% of US households, access is less common in the households of persons with a high school education or less, Black, Hispanic, and Native American/Alaska Native households, and households with an annual income of less than $35,00016. Little published data have examined Internet access among STD clinic attendees, who tend to have lower levels of education and income and be more racially diverse than the general population17–19. High levels of Internet and email access and acceptability among STD clinic attendees would suggest that these modalities could be used more extensively to provide public health and clinical follow-up services to this population as well as to conduct STD-related research among participants recruited from STD clinics.…”

Men seeking sex online practise riskier sexual behaviours than men frequenting brothels: survey findings from Singapore

“…The samples of men visiting the two venues were obtained from a sampling frame of brothels and the most popular internet sex forums in Singapore. Most previous studies have recruited online sex seekers from attendees of STI clinics 1 18. The high response rate and time location sampling also support the generalisability of the findings of the brothel group to all licensed brothels in Singapore.…”

Comportamento sexual de sujeitos com aids referida: um estudo baseado numa amostra da população brasileira

“…Dessa forma, a prevalência de comportamento sexual de risco e de infecção pelo HIV entre HSH ainda é elevada, em geral (Benotsch et al, 1999;Colby, 2003;Wong e Tang, 2004;MacKellar et al, 2005;Treisman et al, 2005). (Benotsch et al, 1999;Rietmeijer et al, 2001;Malu et al, 2004…”