Prevalence of Same-Gender Sexual Behavior and HIV in a Probability Household Survey in Mexican Men - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 2000 by Jose A. Izazola-Licea, Steven L. Gortmaker, Kathryn Tolbert, Victor De Gruttola, Jonathan Mann

Homosexually active men are a hard to reach population by traditional health interventions, particularly because of their lack of identity as gay or bisexual men. Therefore, substantive research must be developed to reach them properly with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease prevention programs.

This population-based survey suggests that the possibility of further HIV infection spread to women and children might be facilitated by the low prevalence of condom use among bisexual men. However, the low prevalence of active bisexual men and the relatively low-risk behaviors with men suggests that a low frequency of transmission is expected. Social stigma cannot be excluded as a reason for the low reported prevalence of same-gender sexual behavior, even though representative surveys in other communities have also shown low estimates of same-gender sexual behavior, and the internal validity of this survey appears substantive. Further research needs to be performed to validate these findings in other representative samples of Spanish-speaking communities. Additional efforts must be made to evaluate the impact of a low frequency of same-gender sexual behavior in the evolution of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to evaluate the possibility of a sustainable heterosexual epidemic in a community with low rates of injection drug use.

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