AEGiS-15IAC: Condom use by MSM in Ecuador: Low use rates with male partners are even lower with female sexual partners.

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Condom use by MSM in Ecuador: Low use rates with male partners are even lower with female sexual partners.

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. ThOrC1372)

Gutierrez JP, Molina D, Bertozzi SM
Division of Health Economics and Policy, National Institute of Public Health (INSP), Cuernavaca, Mexico

BACKGROUND: The Ecuadorian HIV epidemic is, as in many other Latin-American countries, concentrated among men who have sex with men (MSM). With an adult prevalence of only 0.3%, Ecuador had reported prevalence about 15% among MSM.

METHODS: As a part of the evaluation of the Frontiers Prevention Project (FPP), a comprehensive prevention program in Ecuador, a baseline survey of men who have sex with other men (MSM) was implemented. The questionnaire gathered information about their sexual behavior and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The preliminary analysis presented here reflects data gathered from 2,580 MSM in 6 cities in Ecuador.

RESULTS: Preliminary multivariate analysis of the behavioral data shows that 30% of Ecuadorian MSM reported a woman as their last sexual partner. In response to questions about which sex acts were performed in their previous 3 encounters, MSM reported extremely little variation: vaginal sex comprised almost 100% of sexual acts with women and anal sex almost 100% of sexual acts with men. Reported condom use with men was low and even lower for sexual intercourses with women (38% vs. 22%). Eighty percent of MSM who didn't use a condom reported that they did not have one available at that time, with the most frequent reason (62%) being that they never use a condom.

CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary analysis of data from a survey in 6 Ecuadorian cities revealed surprisingly low condom use among MSM. Only 3.4% reported that the price of condoms was an important reason for not using a condom, suggesting that the lack of availability is not an important issue. Subsequent analyses of these data should examine other individual and community-level correlates of condom use in this population as these data become available.

Keywords: AEGIS, Safe Sex, Sexual Partners, Condoms, Sexual Behavior, Prevalence, Coitus, Questionnaires, Data Collection, Ecuador, Male, Female, Humans, Adult, utilization

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ThOrC1372