Remafedi GJ, Howard TB; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. WePeE6553.

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States

BACKGROUND: Anecdotal data suggest that young men who have sex with men (YMSM) frequent Internet chat rooms for romantic partners. These might be good venues to reach YMSM for HIV prevention research and services. Our purpose was to describe YMSM attending men-for-men (MFM) chat rooms in a major U.S. urban center. METHODS: Design: direct observation of chat room visitors. Setting: geographically-specific MFM chat rooms on two different Internet service providers (ISP). Subjects: visitors who reported being 13-to-21 year-old men. Sampling frame:Two-stage stratified sampling was used to divide the week into nine strata, defined by three day- (i.e., Monday to Thursday, Friday to Saturday, Sunday) and three time periods (i.e., 8 AM-4 PM, 4 PM-12AM, 12 AM-8 AM). For each ISP, one-hour sampling events were randomly chosen from the nine strata. Procedures: During sampling events, the characteristics of YMSM were systematically recorded from chat profiles and web sites. RESULTS: Sixty-four unique YMSM visited chat rooms during 15 of the 18 events. 84% (54/64) of subjects were Euro-American; 11% (7/64) did not indicate race; and two were Hispanic- or African-American. 58% (37/64) posted an email address; 53% (34/64), sexually explicit material; and 9% (6/64), a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The number of YMSM per event ranged from 0 to 9.7 (mean: 4.5). Between strata, there was no significant difference in the proportion of attendees who were YMSM (mean, 15%, range 0% to 20%). On one ISP, there was a significant difference in attendance between weekdays and Sunday (mean N: 7.3 vs. 3.0, ANOVA F value 5.35, df 2, P<.05) CONCLUSION: At most times of the day or night, YMSM visit MFM chat rooms and comprise a sizable portion of attendees. The majority posted sexually-explicit information and provided email addresses. As such, chat rooms may be good venues to reach YMSM at risk for HIV infection.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Electronic Mail
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Hispanic Americans
• Humans
• Internet
• Male
• United States

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0013829

UI: 102251327

From Meeting Abstracts