Psychosocial status of MSM population in Guangzhou city

ObjectiveTo understand the psychosocial status of men who have sex with men(MSM)in Guangzhou and its relationship with high risk sex behaviors and to provide basis for intervention.MethodsInternet was used to recruit MSM for a anonymous questionnaire survey in Lingnan MSM partner support center,Guangzhou from March 2010 to June 2010.The data were analyzed with SPSS 13.0.ResultsAmong 291 MSM,3.4% (10/291)reported drug abuse,1.4% (4/291)for ketamine and 0.7% (2/291)for methampheta-mine and 23.4% (68/291)reported a center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D)score of 16-19,indicating possible depression symptoms.There were 40.5% (118/291) of MSM reported a CES-D score above 20,indicating a definitive depression symptom.Totally 17.5% (51/291)of MSM had childhood sexual abuse history.Logistic regression indicated that moderate depression(odds ratioOR=2.04,95% confidence intervalCI:1.05-3.95),severe depression(OR=2.40,95%CI:1.34-4.29),childhood sexual abuse (OR=2.15,95%CI:1.01-4.56),and low HIV knowledge score(OR=1.68,95%CI:1.06-4.62)were risk factors of harmful sexual behaviors.ConclusionThe psychosocial status of MSM in Guangzhou is worse and certain psychosocial problems are correlated with high risk sex behaviors among the MSM.Thus the psychosocial status of MSM should be given a special attention in intervention work.