Dr Philippe Adam reports on the 'How Much do you Care?' study by the National Centre in HIV Social Research at the University of New South Wales. This presentation was given at the Young Gay Men's Symposium at the Promises & Limitations conference, Sydney, February 2014.

1. Sexual health promotion needs of young
gay and bisexual men in Australia
Centre for Social Research in Health
Dr Philippe Adam
UNSW Centre for Social Research in Health
These data will be presented at the13th Social Research Conference on HIV, Viral
Hepatitis and Related Diseases, Feb 20-21 2014, Sydney

2. How much do you care? - Methods
•
•
•
Conducted online between April
and October 2011
840 eligible participants divided
around the median age into
‘younger’ (16-26 years) men and
‘older’ (27 years and over) men
We compared the situation of
younger versus older gay men
in terms of:
 HIV/STI knowledge
 Intention to use condoms
and sexual risk-taking
 Testing for HIV/STIs
 Exposure to sexual health
campaigns

3. How much do you care? – Key findings
Data…
 Younger gay men reported lower
levels of HIV/STI knowledge than
older gay men (Mean=5.0 vs. 5.7,
range 0-10)
 Younger and older men did not differ
intention to use condoms (M= 4.6,
range 1-5) nor in UAIR reports
(around 40%) or UAIC reports
(around 25%).
 Younger men were less often tested
for HIV/STIs than older men (68%
vs. 94%) and only 40% of younger
men test routinely for HIV (vs 62%
among older gay men
 Almost a quarter (23%) of younger
men had not been exposed to
campaigns promoting HIV testing.
Interpretation…
Poor knowledge and low testing rates
among sexually active younger gay
men were related to lack of exposure
to HIV campaigns reported by almost
a quarter of participants.
Increasing the coverage of sexual
health programs among younger gay
men is required.

4. Implication for health promotion?
• Does this mean that younger men ‘just need’ more campaigns
providing information about HIV and promoting condoms and HIV
testing? Could some campaigns for older gay men used in the past
be recycled?
• Past efforts have focused on older sexually adventurous gay men
presenting low ability/intention to change and behavioural changes
approaches have not frequently been used in Australia
• The project is now to start fresh with new sexual health promotion
approaches for a generation of younger men who are interested in
HIV prevention and have the ability/willingness to learn and adapt
 Examples of translational approaches that could be used

5. CyberSEXproject
Understanding risk with partners met online
Sexual risk-taking is
frequent among gay men
who find partners online.
A survey was conducted to
understand factors and
processes associated with
sexual risk-taking with partners
met online.
Results indicate that
the dynamic of online chatting
and fantasising can create risk
over and above men’s intention.
Non-premeditated risk can be
explained by lack of self
regulation of online conduct
Source: CSRH Cybersex study, 932
eligible participants recruited in 2012

6. Chat Smart Intervention Study
CSRH and AFAO
Chat Smart Study is an
evidence-informed and
theory-driven online
intervention tested for
efficacy within a RCT.
The study is conducted
by the UNSW Centre for
Social Research in Health
And the Australian
Federation of Aids
Organisations
Status: Launch is pending
The aim is to promote
self-regulation of online
conduct among gay
and bisexual men
18-29 years old who
have the intention to
use condoms
with their partners met
online but experience
difficulties translating
these intentions into
practice.

7. Conclusion
• Behavioural HIV prevention interventions have the potential of
being highly effective among younger gay and bisexual men if
these interventions are deployed with sufficient coverage and
intensity and are both evidence-informed and theory-driven
• There is a need to explore new ways of doing sexual health
promotion in strong partnership between HIV prevention
research and practice