Abstract:
Background: AIDS is still a major public health and medicine problem. The number of new case has increased in men who have sex with men, especially male sex workers who are at risk for HIV infection. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and to determine factors associated with HIV infection among the ethnic minority male sex workers in Chiang Mai province. An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted. A cluster random sampling method was used to select the samples who were male sex workers, aged ≥ 18 years, and having sex with men from 11 sites in Muang District, Chiang Mai Province, between 2016 and 2017. A validated questionnaire and blood specimen were used as research tools to collect the information. Chi-square and logistic regression were used for detection the associations between variables at the significant level of alpha=0.05.
Result, totally 250 participants were recruited into the study. 55.60% were Shan, 58.00% were aged 19-24 years, and 95.20% were Buddhist. The prevalence of HIV infection was 3.60. In the multivariate analysis, condom use was shown the statistical association with HIV infection with ORadj=15.64 (95%CI=1.79-133.58).
Encouraging young ethnic minority male sex workers to regularly use condom with their clients is significant to address HIV/AIDS in these populations. To increase coverage of accessing the Thai health care system including stimulating the cooperation between government and non-governmental agencies to develop effective health promotion programs are also important.