Prevalence and some risk behaviors of men have sex with men in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province in 2022

Abstract

A cross - sectional study was conducted on 450 men who have sex with men (MSM) in Ba Ria - Vung Tau (BR - VT) to determine HIV prevalence, describe risk behaviors and related factors. The results showed that HIV prevalence in MSM group was 16.2%. Over a half of MSM had more than 2 sexual partners in the past 3 months. The rate of using condoms during sexual intercourse in the last time with regular and irregular partners was 15.3% and 27.3%, respectively. The rate of ever using psychotropic substances was 39.5% and using during sex was 34.5%. The rate of men using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was less than 10% and the rate of subjects conducting HIV tests within 6 months was 7.2%. Multivariate analysis showed that living with male partners (OR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1 - 5.0), have used psychotropic substances (OR = 3,8; 95%KTC: 1.2 – 11.5) and was diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (OR = 3.4; 95% CI: 2.1 - 7.6) related with HIV infection. Thereby, it is necessary to strengthen and diversify communication and intervention activities, including access to, support for behavior change, safe sex, PrEP treatment, HIV/STIs testing in MSM.