EpiCH Support
      Services

MINTS-II

This is a competing continuation application to further HIV prevention research on the Internet as a risk environment.  In 2001 we commenced one of the first five NIH-funded studies of the Internet and HIV risk: the Men's INTernet Study (MINTS-I). This three-year project focused on Internet-using Latino Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). At 32 months into the study, we have completed an entirely on-line survey study to assess the Internet-sex risk of Latino MSM in the US, developed a psychosexual profile based on 1,026 participants, and compared their risk behaviors in sexual liaisons from the Internet and from conventional meetings.

Nearly all MINTS-I participants (99%) reported using the Internet to seek sexual liaisons with other men.  Moreover, extremely high rates of risk behavior were identified, with 66% of participants reporting unprotected anal sex in the last 12 months.  These key findings, combined with reports of a high number of sexual partners met specifically through the Internet, predict disproportionate infection through liaisons developed online.

These results have compelling implications for all Men who use the Internet to seek Sex with other Men (MISM) the topic of this continuation request.  Our first priority is to test the temporal stability of our findings with Latino MISM and investigate their generalizability to all MISM. Our second priority is to broaden the reach of HIV prevention to MISM by adapting and enhancing an empirically tested, sexual health intervention for MSM into a highly interactive Internet-based one. 

In adopting an online approach to prevention, we are responding to three pressing prevention challenges:

1. the Internet has become the most popular environment for MSM to seek sexual partners;
2. a sizable subgroup of MISM only seek partners online;
3. translational HIV research built on the strengths of e-learning is lacking.

Our third priority is to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the new intervention s effect on the risk behaviors of MISM. Consistent with our first grant proposal, the broad, long-term objectives of our research remain as follows:

1. to reduce high-risk behaviors among those at greatest risk for HIV, and
2. to build theory and to advance knowledge in Internet-based HIV prevention research.