Health risk perception and behavioral decision-making among online-dating MSM in Shandong, China: perspectives on HIV and new psychoactive substances.

BACKGROUND

Online dating has become a dominant channel for men who have sex with men (MSM) to seek sexual partners in China, exacerbating dual public health challenges of HIV transmission and new psychoactive substances (NPS) abuse. This study aims to explore the perceptions of MSM regarding the risks and harms associated with HIV and NPS in the context of online dating.

METHODS

From April to July 2023, MSM were recruited from eight cities in Shandong Province using a combination of snowball sampling, venue-based recruitment, and online methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect demographic information, NPS usage, sexual behavior, and online dating activities of the participants. Blood samples were also collected for HIV and syphilis antibody testing. Missing data were imputed using multiple imputation. Two separate multivariate binary logistic regression models were constructed to identify factors associated with two dependent variables: (1) HIV self-perceived risk and (2) NPS harm awareness among online-dating MSM.

RESULTS

A total of 2,785 online-dating MSM were included in the study. Among them, 37.8% (1,052) perceived their risk of HIV infection as low or negligible, while 10.8% (302) believed that using NPS posed little or no harm to their health. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that MSM with a college education or higher (aOR = 1.202, 95%CI: 1.009-1.431), who engaged in anonymous dating (aOR = 1.298, 95%CI: 1.071-1.574), had no pre-sex HIV testing with online partners in the past 6 months (P6M) (aOR = 1.780, 95%CI: 1.489-2.128), consistently used condoms during sex with online partners in the P6M (aOR = 2.004, 95%CI: 1.693-2.371), syphilis positivity (aOR = 1.957, 95%CI: 1.289-2.971), and had used NPS (aOR = 1.989, 95%CI: 1.687-2.344) were more likely to perceive a high risk of HIV infection. Additionally, MSM younger than 25 years (aOR = 1.649, 95%CI: 1.131-2.405), those with an Shandong registration (aOR = 1.997, 95%CI: 1.179-3.382), those with adequate HIV knowledge (aOR = 3.483, 95%CI: 1.723-7.041), those who do not engaged in group sex in the P6M (aOR = 1.531, 95%CI: 1.097-2.138), those who do not engaged in anonymous dating (aOR = 1.733, 95%CI:1.329-2.261), those who reported inconsistent condom use with online partners in the P6M (aOR = 1.554, 95%CI: 1.208-1.998), and those who had not used NPS (aOR = 1.371, 95%CI: 1.071-1.754) were more likely to have a low awareness of NPS harms.

CONCLUSIONS

Online-dating MSM in Shandong Province have insufficient HIV self-perception risk and NPS harm awareness, compounded by anonymous partnering and cognitive-behavioral dissonance. It is recommended to implement subpopulation-targeted interventions, increase warning education, promote informed partnering practices, strengthen NPS harm awareness campaigns targeting youth, reinforce online regulation and health education, leverage online platforms and community organizations to expand intervention coverage, and achieve coordinated HIV prevention and control.