a German Institute for Addiction and Prevention Research (DISuP) , Catholic University of Applied Sciences , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany.
b Centre for Social Research in Health , UNSW Sydney , New South Wales , Australia.
Subst Use Misuse. 2019;54(6):944-954. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2018.1552302. Epub 2019 Jan 16.
Gay and bisexual men (GBM) report distinctive patterns and contexts of drug use, yet little has been published about their attitudes toward drug use.
We developed measures of attitudes and perceived social norms toward drug use, and examined covariates of more accepting attitudes and norms among GBM in Australia.
We analyzed baseline data from the Following Lives Undergoing Change (Flux) study. Flux is an online prospective observational study of drug use among Australian GBM. We used principal components factor analysis to generate two attitudinal scales assessing "drug use for social and sexual enhancement" and "perceptions of drug risk." A third perceived social norms scale examined "acceptability of drug use among gay friends."
Among 2,112 participants, 61% reported illicit drug use in the preceding six months. Stronger endorsement of drug use for social and sexual engagement and lower perceptions of drug risk were found among men who were more socially engaged with other gay men and reported regular drug use and drug use for sex. In multivariate analyses, all three scales were associated with recent drug use (any use in the previous six months), but only the drug use for social and sexual enhancement scale was associated with regular (at least monthly) use.
Drug use and sex are difficult to disentangle for some GBM, and health services and policies could benefit from a better understanding of attitudinal and normative factors associated with drug use in gay social networks, while recognizing the role of pleasure in substance use.
男同性恋和双性恋者（GBM）报告了独特的药物使用模式和背景，但关于他们对药物使用的态度却鲜有报道。
我们开发了衡量对药物使用的态度和感知社会规范的措施，并研究了澳大利亚 GBM 中更易接受的态度和规范的协变量。
我们分析了正在进行中的变革生活（Flux）研究的基线数据。Flux 是一项针对澳大利亚 GBM 药物使用的在线前瞻性观察研究。我们使用主成分因子分析生成了两个衡量态度的量表，评估“药物使用促进社交和性”和“对药物风险的看法”。第三个感知社会规范量表评估了“同性恋朋友中药物使用的可接受性”。
在 2112 名参与者中，61%的人在过去六个月内报告了非法药物使用。与其他男同性恋者更社交互动、报告经常使用药物和使用药物进行性行为的男性，对药物促进社交和性的使用持更强的认可态度，对药物风险的看法也较低。在多变量分析中，所有三个量表都与最近的药物使用（过去六个月内的任何使用）相关，但只有药物促进社交和性的使用量表与经常（至少每月）使用相关。
对一些 GBM 来说，药物使用和性很难区分，卫生服务和政策可以从更好地了解与男同性恋社交网络中药物使用相关的态度和规范因素中受益，同时认识到物质使用中的愉悦作用。
