Baseline demographic characteristics and behavioral risks of men who have sex with men accessing CDC funded HIV prevention services: Results from an analysis of participants at 22 community based organizations

Background: Limited data exist on MSM reached by HIV prevention interventions implemented by CDC-funded CBOs. From 2006-2010, CDC provided supplemental funding to CBOs to monitor outcomes for five interventions by collecting demographic and risk-behavior data. These data provide information MSM reached by these interventions.

Methods: Data from outcome evaluation studies were combined and analyzed for men who reported sex with a man during a 90 or 30 day recall period, depending on the evaluation study. Frequencies/proportions/means of demographic and baseline risk-behavior data were analyzed by self-reported HIV status. Behavioral data were reported separately for studies using a 90- and 30-day recall period for risk behaviors.

Results: Based upon sexual history using a 90-/30-day recall, 55/13% were MSM for the evaluation studies. Of 1,018 MSM participating, most were black, non-Hispanic (43%) or Hispanic (41%) and 18-24 years old (45%). Most participants reported having a previous HIV test (94%), and 46% reported positive results. HIV-positive participants reported an average of 4.7/3.9 partners and 6.8/3.6 unprotected sex events for 90/30-day recall, with 50%/67% reporting one or more unprotected sex events plus multiple partners. Participants without a previous positive HIV test reported an average of 2.9/3.0 partners and 7.5/4.0 unprotected sex events for 90/30-day recall, with 25%/67% reporting multiple partners and unprotected sex events.

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that CDC-funded interventions successfully enrolled MSM from demographic groups that are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic. Participants also reported baseline risk behaviors with high frequency and intensity, promoting the potential for post-intervention risk-behavior reduction.