Principal Results
sexual behaviors, disclosure behaviors, HIV e-reports and HIV serostatus request, HIV infection, ’s HIV serostatus, MSM, ’ HIV serostatusas
HIV INFECTION
e-Reports are a new approach for HIV serostatus request and disclosure for the HIV risk population. MSM chose HIV e-report as theweb-based approach to disclose their own HIV serostatus or to request partner’s HIV serostatus with authenticity when it was available in Guangzhou. The most important is that HIV serostatus request behaviors were positively associated with having their own HIV e-report. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to discuss the use of HIV e-reports and explore its association. HIV e-report, codeveloped by the MSM community itself, could be considered a novel approach to promote mutual HIV status disclosure before engaging in sexual behaviors among HIV high-risk population, and being capable to be replicated in other countries and regions based on the ability of building information platforms.The most interesting finding is that MSM who used HIV e-reports were more likely to actively request the HIV serostatus of their male sex partners. As e-report is a new modality in the HIV research area, studies to investigatethe association between HIV e-reports and HIV serostatus request and disclosure behaviors have rarely been reported. The possible reason for this finding is the confidence in the e-report, which is the CDC-certified credible evidence of HIV serostatus that cannot be modified. Holding an HIV e-report may make MSM feel more confident and self-assured when requesting the HIV serostatus of their male sex partners. Therefore, HIV e-report has the potential to be applied as an intervention to control the risk of HIV infection by promoting HIV serostatus disclosure. However, it is important to emphasize that the HIV e-report is not a substitute for condom use. A meta-analysis conducted in 2017 showed that seroadaptive substitution for condoms can increase the risk of HIV infection [After the HIV e-report was available, a new proportion of MSM had used the e-report to request their sex partner’s HIV serostatus (13.4%, 35/262) and had received their sex partner’s e-report as an HIV serostatus disclosure (26.2%, 51/195). In addition to e-report results certificated by CDC, the significance of HIV e-report is that it is driven by MSM community demand, which correspondingly engaged in the development of HIV e-report. MSM designed it because they feel sending out their own HIV e-report is the most natural and credible way to request male sex partners’ HIV serostatusas well as disclose their own HIV serostatus. According to the results, HIV e-report is becoming more acceptable within the MSM community.We found that nearly one-third of MSM did not request the HIV serostatus of their casual male sex partners. A total of 74.9% (197/232) of alters requested their regular sex partner’s HIV serostatus, while 71.5% (150/184) of alters requested their casual sex partner’s HIV serostatus at baseline. Requesting a partner’s HIV serostatus before engaging in sexual activity is an active coping strategy to control the risk of HIV infection. However, most research on HIV serostatus focuses on self-disclosure rather than request behavior [In our study, we found that 62.2% (163/262) of participants reported receiving disclosure from male sex partners. Other studies showed that the HIV serostatus self-disclosure rate among MSM in China was approximately 20% in 2016 and 2018 [Finally, previous studies indicated that HIV testing is positively associated with HIV serostatus request and disclosure [