School of Public Health, Dept. Health Economics and Health Management, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH), Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 14;14(2):e0212175. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212175. eCollection 2019.
In the absence of detailed information about the population size and behaviour data of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), the estimation of prevalence rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the design of public health interventions become difficult. The aim of the present study is to estimate the lower boundary of age-specific population sizes and retrieve self-reported information from this population.
We used publicly accessible data from a large online dating and social network website for MSM in Germany to retrieve data on the age and regional distribution of profiles. The profiles were also stratified by their information on the preferred position during anal intercourse, safer sex, and sexual identity.
A total of 464,873 user profiles correspond to an average 15.2 profiles per 1,000 male inhabitants in Germany, varying between 7.6 and 45.6 across federal states. Although the information on the absolute numbers for different age groups is limited by the search engine, age-specific relative frequencies were found to increase from 12.9 in the age group of 18 to 20 year olds to 24.6 profiles per 1,000 male inhabitants in the 28 to 30 year olds. The data shows age-specific trends for safer sex with an increasing easiness of reporting "never" engaging in safer sex or stating that safer sex "needs discussion" with increasing age. Around one third of profile owners stated to be versatile with respect to the preferred position in anal intercourse. All other options ("only bottom", "more bottom", "only top", "more top") were preferred equally likely by roughly 10% of profile owners, respectively.
Online social network or dating sites can provide some information about specific populations in the absence of other data sources. The presented results are the first to report age-specific rates of MSM per 1,000 male inhabitants in Germany and may be useful to estimate age-specific prevalence or incidence rates as well as to inform health promotion activities and modelling studies for MSM in Germany.
由于缺乏关于男男性行为者（MSM）人群规模和行为数据的详细信息，因此难以估计性传播感染（STI）的流行率并设计公共卫生干预措施。本研究旨在估计特定年龄人群规模的下限，并从该人群中检索自我报告的信息。
我们使用德国一个大型在线约会和社交网络网站上的公开数据，检索个人资料的年龄和地区分布信息。这些个人资料还按他们在肛交中首选姿势、安全性行为和性身份的信息进行分层。
共有 464873 个用户个人资料，相当于德国每 1000 名男性居民中有 15.2 个个人资料，各州之间的差异在 7.6 到 45.6 之间。尽管不同年龄组的绝对数量信息受到搜索引擎的限制，但发现年龄特定的相对频率从 18 至 20 岁年龄组的 12.9 个个人资料增加到 28 至 30 岁年龄组的 24.6 个个人资料。数据显示了安全性行为的年龄特定趋势，随着报告“从不”进行安全性行为或表示安全性行为“需要讨论”的人数增加，年龄越大，这一趋势越明显。大约三分之一的个人资料所有者表示在肛交中首选位置上具有多样性。大约 10%的个人资料所有者分别更倾向于选择“只做后进”、“更喜欢后进”、“只做前入”和“更喜欢前入”。
在线社交网络或约会网站在没有其他数据源的情况下可以提供有关特定人群的一些信息。本研究首次报告了德国每 1000 名男性居民中特定年龄的 MSM 率，这可能有助于估计特定年龄的流行率或发病率，并为德国 MSM 的健康促进活动和模型研究提供信息。
