The Internet as recruitment tool for HIV studies: viable strategy for reaching at-risk Hispanic MSM in Miami?

Abstract

Although use of the Internet as a vehicle for HIV/STI research is increasing, its viability to recruit at-risk populations such as Hispanic men who have sex with men (HMSM) to participate in community-based HIV studies is in its infancy. We report on the first 171 participants enrolled in an ongoing study exploring use of the Internet to recruit Hispanic men who have sex with men (HMSM) living in Miami-Dade County, Florida to participate in community-based studies. We report our initial success with chat-room recruitment and describe the sexual and drug use practices of the initial set of participants who were recruited through the Internet. In addition, we describe the formative work conducted to develop the Internet recruitment procedures we are testing. In two months, we spent 211 hours recruiting in chat-rooms and engaged 735 chatters. One hundred and seventy-six men came to our community sites; 172 (98%) were eligible and completed an audio computer-assisted self-interview. In the previous six months, 94.7% of participants had anal sex; 48.9% did not use condoms for anal sex or used them inconsistently; and 48.5% had used club drugs. Six-month use rates for individual drugs were: poppers (31.6%), cocaine (15.8%), ecstasy (14%) and crystal methamphetamines (11.7%). Use of club drugs was significantly associated with unprotected insertive and unprotected receptive anal sex. These initial findings point to the Internet's potential as a tool for recruiting at-risk Hispanic MSM for community studies.

Surfing New Territory: Club-Drug Use and Risky Sex Among Hispanic Men Who Have Sex with Men Recruited on the Internet

“…To reflect local patterns of use, 27,30 we included the following drugs in the operational definition of club drugs: cocaine, Ecstasy, crystal, poppers, GHB, Special K, and Viagra. Eighty-three men (48.5%) had used club drugs in the last 6 months.…”

“…27 Internet venues were randomly selected from a list of potential Internet CLUB-DRUG USE AND RISKY SEX AMONG HISPANIC MSM i81 venues that cater to HMSM developed in consultation with community representatives. For each venue, "peak" and "off-peak" periods were specified by logging the number of chatroom users at selected venues during different times of the day/night and days of the week.…”

“…Using systematic sampling methods, staff approached every fifth screen name posted and initiated a dialogue following a script consisting of five steps: (1) introduction; (2) preliminary screen; (3) consent to proceed; (4) study description; and (5) procedures for enrollment. 27 Interested chatroom users were referred to the project website and invited to visit either of two community sites for screening and enrollment. For each chatroom user engaged in an active dialogue, researchers recorded the screen name; time of interaction; chatroom; screen name used by researcher; who initiated the approach (investigator or chatroom user); whether the chatroom user visited the project website while chatting; and general comments (e.g., "not Hispanic," or "not interested").…”

Masculinity and the Occupational Experience of Male Independent Escorts Who Seek Male Clients

“…To reimburse the costs of participation in the study (i.e., transportation) (Fernández et al 2004), AUD50 was given to each participant upon completion of the interview, based on university research funding guidelines. Participants were also provided a gift bag which contained safer sex materials donated by Respect Inc. and various prophylactic manufactures, and a booklet on safer sex work, also provided by Respect Inc. (Seib et al 2009).…”

Toward a Better Understanding of Non-Addicted, Methamphetamine- Using, Men who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in Atlanta

“…Already recognized for its high propensity for addiction [3] and negative impact on mental [4,5] and affective [6,7] functioning, methamphetamine use is also correlated with significant public health concerns for MSM, specifically high-risk sexual behavior and HIV transmission. This link between HIV risk and methamphetamine use among MSM has been welldocumented in several large urban settings [8][9][10][11][12]. However, there has existed limited methamphetamine-related research conducted with MSM in Atlanta [13,14].…”