Prevalence and Factors Associated with HIV Infection Among Ethnic Minority Male Sex Worker in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Abstract

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is still a major public health and medicine problems particularly in Thailand. A number of new infected cases haves increased particularly among men who have sex with men (MSW). This study aimed to assess the prevalence and to determine factors associated with HIV infec- tion 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 worked as male sex workers, aged >18 years, and had experienced in sexual intercourse with men from 11 sites in Muang district, Chiang Mai province, between 2016 and 2017. A validated questionnaire and blood specimen were used for data collection. Chi-square and logistic regression were used for detection the associations between variables at the significant level of alpha=0.05. Altogether 250 participants were recruited into the study. As for the finding, 55.60% of the samples were Shan, 58.00% were aged 19-24 years, and 95.20% were Buddhist. The overall prevalence of HIV infection was 3.60%. In the multivariate analysis, condom use was found to be statistically associated with the prevalence of HIV infection (OR =15.64 ; 95%CI=1.79-133.58). Encouraging young ethnic minority male sex adj workers to regularly use condom with their clients is very significant to address HIV/AIDS problems in these populations.