National HIV Prevention Conference Atlanta, Georgia, USA — July 27 - 30, 2003

Natl HIV Prev Conf 2003 July 27-30:abstract no. M1-A0203
Dawson AG Jr, Henry D, Lopez N, Freeman A, Caughy M, Ross M
U T Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:: The various social and environmental factors that play a role in shaping the context of HIV risk taking behavior among MSM have not been well elaborated. Recent studies have documented the increased use of the Internet by MSM as a discrete means to meet sexual partners for "Real-time" sexual liaisons. Little is known, however, about what kinds of negotiations occur during chat, about how the context of virtual meeting shapes and determines the expectation and realities of the ensuing meeting, or about how HIV prevention interventions could be effectively designed to target this environment. Because so little is known about this phenomenon, we designed a mixed method ethnograpic study to investigate both online behavior and its context among 18-35 year old MSM in Dallas.

METHODS: We developed an in-depth, multi-stage, multi-level study in Dallas county, called the Social and Environmental Interventions (SEI) study. Between 2000 - 2002, the project collaborated with some 200 young men and over 80 local service providers and community leaders. The study included specific investigation of the growing chatroom phenomenon, its potential implications for the spread of HIV, and the possibilities of structural-level HIV interventions. This included an Internet-based survey of HIV risk behaviors for those who patronize online chat-rooms, a print survey distributed as a community newspaper insert (n = 245 respondents), 2 focus groups of young men who meet each other online, and 40 key participant interviews conducted online in popular cruising chatrooms.

RESULTS: Domains emerged from analysis of the qualitative data of specific relavance to HIV prevention, such as the freedom of online communication style, the use of chatrooms to allow exploration of the multiple personal and situational identities, the influence of the physical environment on chat and the online negotiation of contingent boundaries of behavior during the ensuing sex event.

CONCLUSIONS: The data point to the critical need for Internet-based outreach, and to innovative ways in which interventions could exploit the unique social and environmental norms of the online environment to design effective and targeted HIV prevention.

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M1-A0203

Copyright © 2003 - US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).