Casual Sex among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) during the Period of Sheltering in Place to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

Alvaro Francisco Lopes de Sousa, Layze Braz de Oliveira, Artur Acelino Francisco Luz Nunes Queiroz, Herica Emilia Félix de Carvalho, Guilherme Schneider, Emerson Lucas Silva Camargo, Telma Maria Evangelista de Araújo, Sandra Brignol, Isabel Amélia Costa Mendes, Inês Fronteira and Willi McFarland
Additional contact information
Alvaro Francisco Lopes de Sousa: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Layze Braz de Oliveira: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Artur Acelino Francisco Luz Nunes Queiroz: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Herica Emilia Félix de Carvalho: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Guilherme Schneider: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Emerson Lucas Silva Camargo: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Telma Maria Evangelista de Araújo: Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Teresina 64049-550, Brazil
Sandra Brignol: Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói 24220-900, Brazil
Isabel Amélia Costa Mendes: Human Exposome and Infectious Diseases Network, Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto 14040-902, Brazil
Inês Fronteira: Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal
Willi McFarland: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Objectives: We investigated the extent to which Brazilian and Portuguese Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) had casual sex partners outside their homes during the period of sheltering in place for the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An online survey was conducted in Brazil and Portugal in April, during the period of social isolation for COVID-19, with a sample of 2361 MSMs. Recruitment was done through meeting apps and Facebook. Results: Most of the sample (53.0%) had casual sex partners during sheltering. Factors that increased the odds of engaging in casual sex in Brazil were having group sex (aOR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3–3.4), living in an urban area (aOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1–2.2), feeling that sheltering had a high impact on daily life (aOR 3.0, 95% CI 1.1–8.3), having casual instead of steady partners (aOR 2.5, 95% CI 1.8–3.5), and not decreasing the number of partners (aOR 6.5, 95% CI 4.2–10.0). In Portugal, the odds of engaging in casual sex increased with using Facebook to find partners (aOR 4.6, 95% CI 3.0–7.2), not decreasing the number of partners (aOR 3.8, 95% CI 2.9–5.9), usually finding partners in physical venues (pre-COVID-19) (aOR 5.4, 95% CI 3.2–8.9), feeling that the isolation had a high impact on daily life (aOR 3.0, 95% CI 1.3–6.7), and HIV-positive serostatus (aOR 11.7, 95% CI 4.7–29.2). Taking PrEP/Truvada to prevent COVID-19 was reported by 12.7% of MSM. Conclusions: The pandemic has not stopped most of our MSM sample from finding sexual partners, with high-risk sexual behaviors continuing.

Keywords: casual sex; sex partners; men who have sex with men; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3266/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3266/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3266-:d:521721

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().