- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- A recent nationwide survey shows that a larger proportion of men say
they are having sex with other men than in the 1980s, although whether
that trend stems from an increase in same-sex activity or an increased
willingness to report it remains unclear.
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- Dr. John E. Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta and his co-author found that surveys collected
since 1996 showed between 3.1% and 3.7% of men reported having sex with
another man during the past year. This is a sizeable jump from 1988 estimates
of between 1.7% and 2%, they note.
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- However, along with this increase in reported activity,
Anderson noted that attitudes about the acceptability of same-sex activity
have also changed. In fact, he and his colleague Ron Stall found that,
between 1996 and 2000, up to 34% of survey respondents said they believed
homosexuality was generally not wrong, while only 24% of people who completed
the survey between 1988 and 1994 had similar attitudes toward same-sex
activity.
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- As such, society is still far from being 100% accepting
of homosexuality, Anderson noted, so even the current estimates of how
many men have sex with men are likely too low.
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- "Male-to-male sex is still a sensitive, stigmatized
behavior, and...is likely to be underreported to some unknown degree. Even
though these recent estimates are somewhat higher than other surveys, they
probably are still low," he said.
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- The results from the current study, published in the
November issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, stem from a series of
surveys conducted between 1988 and 2000. Each survey included information
from between 500 and 1,200 adult men about their previous sexual experiences.
The surveys asked about same-sex activity over the past year and all during
adulthood.
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- In an interview with Reuters Health, Anderson explained
that it is important to search for accurate estimates of how many men have
sex with men, because they tend to have a higher risk of HIV and other
sexually transmitted infections than other groups. "Public prevention
programs have provided services to this group, and need information for
evaluation and program planning," he noted.
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- An essential factor in gaining accurate estimates of
homosexual activity is privacy, the researcher added. The current survey
was confidential, Anderson noted, and each respondent reported his sexual
activity privately via a paper and pencil questionnaire.
-
- Other methods could involve asking respondents to enter
information about their sexual histories into a computer, without an interviewer
present, Anderson said.
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- SOURCE: Sexually Transmitted Diseases 2002;29:643-646.
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