mental health AIDS

Spring 2006 Newsletter / Volume 7, Issue 3

HIV Prevention News

About Men

Kalichman, Cherry, Cain, Pope, and Kalichman (2005) surveyed a largely African American convenience sample of 141 men living with HIV who were using the Internet to meet potential sex partners.

Results showed that 37% of sexually active HIV-positive men who were using the Internet had gone online to seek potential sex partners in the previous 3 months. Seeking sex partners online was associated with greater likelihood of having HIV-negative sex partners and engaging in unprotected intercourse with HIV-negative or unknown HIV status partners. Multivariate analyses showed that seeking sex partners online was associated with greater education, higher CD4 cell counts, using the Internet for sexual entertainment, and higher Sexual Compulsivity scale scores over and above demographic, health, Internet use, sexual behavior, and other psychosocial characteristics[,] including optimism and depression. (p. 243)

Kalichman and colleagues conclude that,

[a]lthough it may also be the case for men who seek sex partners through other venues, results of this study show that men who seek sex partners on the Internet are in need of HIV transmission risk reduction interventions. Men who used the Internet to seek sex partners reported greater symptoms of depression and less optimism than their counterparts who did not seek sex partners online. ... [Moreover, m]en who did not use the Internet to meet sex partners scored similarly on the Sexual Compulsivity scale as a general community sample of HIV-positive men ... . In contrast, men who used the Internet to meet sex partners scored the same on the Sexual Compulsivity scale as men in a different study who frequently used the Internet for sexual recreation ... . These findings suggest that interventions designed to reduce sexual risks among men who use the Internet to meet sex partners will benefit from taking into account the potential for sexual preoccupations, as indicated by scores on the Sexual Compulsivity scale. For example, interventions that use cognitive and behavior techniques such as thought stopping, distraction, aversive imagery, as well as pharmacological treatment have been used to treat the more severe symptoms of sexual compulsivity ... . HIV-prevention efforts with this population may benefit from including current techniques for intervening with sexually compulsive men. (p. 249)

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