Investigation on the requirement and application of voluntary counseling and testing among men who have sex with men

Objective To investigate the knowledge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome(AIDS) and attitudes toward voluntary counseling and testing(VCT) among men who have sex with men(MSM).Methods The volunteer investigators of comrade group were trained with investigation methods.The principle of informed consent and confidentiality were followed for a one-to-one survey.MSM were randomly selected in their active places,including gay bars,public baths and internet sites in Tianjin city.A questionnaire form was used for the investigation and data were analyzed with SPSS 15.0 software.Results 64 MSM aged 26.2±6.8 were investigated for the project.86.7% of participants had knowledge of AIDS and were aware of the risk of HIV infection.The average of sexual partners was 3 and 92.19%(59/64) of the participants had anal sex with men in the most recent six months.The proportion of condom use was 59.4%(38/64) for the last time of anal sex.46.7%(30/64) of the participants were aware of VCT services and 58 people had a HIV screening test after the counseling.48(75%) and 45(70.31%) participants were willing to accept further VCT services of working group and tell their high-risk situation to the gay volunteers,respectively.The majority of participants(95.31%) thought that it was essential to receive a VCT regularly and 83.61%(51/61) of them would like to have a VCT service every three to six months.95.3% of the participants preferred to have VCT in gay communities in collaboration with the center for disease control(CDC) due to the environment of non-discrimination and privacy as well as communication convenience and good service.Conclusion MSM population had the knowledge of AIDS risk.The volunteers of MSM communities could help providing VCT for MSM.