Sun Christina J, Sutfin Erin, Bachmann Laura H, Stowers Jason, Rhodes Scott D
Oregon Health & Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health, Portland, OR, USA.
Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
J AIDS Clin Res. 2018;9(2). doi: 10.4172/2155-6113.1000757. Epub 2018 Feb 22.
Researchers and public health professionals have increased their attention to GPS-based social and sexual networking applications (apps) tailored to gay, bisexual, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women. These populations continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States, therefore these apps, in particular Grindr, have become an important sampling venue for the recruitment of HIV-related research participants. As such, it is essential to identify differences among app users to avoid potential sampling bias. This paper seeks to identify differences in MSM and transgender women who use Grindr and those who use other similar apps.
A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used to recruit participants online who then completed a 25-item anonymous survey. Five domains were assessed: sociodemographics, HIV testing, sexual risk, substance abuse, and use of GPS-based social and sexual networking apps.
457 participants completed surveys. There were significant differences in the sociodemographic characteristics by app use, including age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and outness. After adjusting for the sociodemographic characteristics associated with app use, there were significant differences in HIV risk and substance use between the groups.
This paper is the first to report on findings that compare MSM and transgender women who report using Grindr to MSM and transgender women who report using other similar apps. GPS-based social and sexual networking apps may offer a valuable recruitment tool for future HIV research seeking to recruit populations at increased risk for HIV or those living with HIV for therapeutic trials. Because of the differences identified across users of different apps, these findings suggest that if researchers recruited participants from just one app, they could end up with a sample quite different than if they had recruited MSM and transgender women from other apps.
研究人员和公共卫生专业人员越来越关注为男同性恋者、双性恋者、其他与男性发生性关系的男性（MSM）以及跨性别女性量身定制的基于全球定位系统（GPS）的社交和性网络应用程序（应用）。在美国，这些人群受艾滋病毒影响的比例仍然过高，因此这些应用，尤其是Grindr，已成为招募艾滋病毒相关研究参与者的重要抽样场所。因此，识别应用程序用户之间的差异以避免潜在的抽样偏差至关重要。本文旨在识别使用Grindr的男男性行为者和跨性别女性与使用其他类似应用的人群之间的差异。
采用基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR）方法在网上招募参与者，然后他们完成一项包含25个项目的匿名调查。评估了五个领域：社会人口统计学、艾滋病毒检测、性风险、药物滥用以及基于GPS的社交和性网络应用的使用情况。
457名参与者完成了调查。按应用使用情况划分的社会人口统计学特征存在显著差异，包括年龄、种族/族裔、性取向和出柜程度。在调整与应用使用相关的社会人口统计学特征后，两组之间在艾滋病毒风险和药物使用方面存在显著差异。
本文首次报告了比较报告使用Grindr的男男性行为者和跨性别女性与报告使用其他类似应用的男男性行为者和跨性别女性的研究结果。基于GPS的社交和性网络应用可能为未来旨在招募艾滋病毒感染风险增加人群或感染艾滋病毒者进行治疗试验的艾滋病毒研究提供一种有价值的招募工具。由于不同应用的用户之间存在差异，这些发现表明，如果研究人员仅从一个应用招募参与者，他们最终得到的样本可能与从其他应用招募男男性行为者和跨性别女性的样本有很大不同。
