HIV self-testing and related factors in men who have sex with men in Shijiazhuang / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand HIV self-testing and related factors in men who have sex with men (MSM) in Shijiazhuang. Methods: From August to September 2020, convenient sampling was used to recruit MSM in Shijiazhuang. Online questionnaires were used to collect information about their demographic characteristics, sexual behaviors and HIV self-testing. logistic regression model was used to analyze the related factors associated with HIV self-testing. Results: In the 304 MSM respondents, 52.3% (159/304) had HIV self-testing in the past 6 months, and 95.0% (151/159) used fingertip blood HIV detection reagent. Self-purchase was the main way to obtain HIV testing reagents (45.9%, 73/159), followed by supply from MSM social organization (44.7%, 71/159). The reasons for having HIV self-testing were non-specific testing time (67.9%, 108/159) and privacy protection (62.9%,100/159), the reasons for having no HIV self-testing included inability of using (32.4%, 47/145), being unaware of HIV self-testing reagent (24.1%, 35/145), and worry about inaccurate self-testing results (19.3%, 28/145). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that being 18-29 years old (aOR=2.68, 95%CI: 1.20-5.94), obtaining free HIV self-testing kits in recent 6 months (aOR=8.61, 95%CI: 4.09-18.11) and making friends through Internet and social software (aOR=2.68, 95%CI: 1.48-4.88) were positive factors for having HIV self-testing. Conclusion: HIV self-testing is a more flexible and convenient way to detect HIV in MSM, and the promotion of HIV self-testing in MSM should be strengthened to further increase the HIV detection rate in this population.

Analysis of on-demand adherence and related factors in men who have sex with men who access HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis services via the internet / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand the compliancy to on-demand HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and related factors in men who have sex with men (MSM) accessing to PrEP service through an Internet platform. Methods: A cross-sectional study method was used to recruit survey respondents through the Heer Health platform from July 6 to August 30, 2022, and a questionnaire survey on the current status of medication use was conducted in MSM who use PrEP through the platform and take medication on demand. The MSM's information collected in the survey mainly included socio-demographic characteristics, behavioral characteristics, risk perception characteristics, PrEP awareness and the status of dose taking. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate factors related with compliancy to PrEP. Results: A total of 330 MSM who met the recruitment criteria were included during the survey period, with a valid response rate of 96.7% (319/330) to the questionnaire survey. The age of the 319 MSM was (32.5±7.3) years. Most of them had education level of junior college or college and above (94.7%, 302/319), most of them were unmarried (90.3%, 288/319), most of them had full-time works (95.9%, 306/319), and 40.8% of them had average monthly income ≥10 000 yuan (130/319). The proportion of the MSM with good compliancy to PrEP was 86.5% (276/319). The results of univariate and multivariate logistic analyses showed that the MSM with good awareness of PrEP had relatively better compliancy to PrEP compared with those with poor awareness of PrEP (aOR=2.43, 95%CI:1.11-5.32). Conclusions: The compliancy to on-demand PrEP was good in MSM who accessed to the services through Internet platform, but there is still a need to strengthen PrEP promotion in MSM for the further improvement of PrEP compliancy and reduction of the risk for HIV infection in this population.

A survey on the current status of cognition of birth safety among married HIV-infected people aged 18-45 years / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand the current status of fertility safety cognition among married HIV-infected people aged 18-45 years and to provide evidence for fertility safety intervention in HIV-infected families. Methods: Six districts in Chongqing and Zigong City in Sichuan Province were selected. A questionnaire survey was conducted among married HIV-infected people aged 18-45 years who were followed up from November 2021 to April 2022 to collect their general demographic characteristics, histories of sex experience, fertility intention, and knowledge of birth safety. Unconditional logistic regression and Poisson regression were used to analyze the factors affecting the cognition of birth safety. Results: A total of 266 HIV-infected people were included in the study; 58.3% (155/266) were women, and 48.9% (130/266) had fertility desire. The cognition rate of knowledge of birth safety was 59.4% (158/266). The cognition rate of women's knowledge of birth safety was 2.14 (95%CI: 1.25-3.66) times that of men's. The cognition rate of knowledge of birth safety among HIV-infected persons with a high school education level or above was 1.88 (95%CI: 1.08-3.27) times that of those with a low education level. The cognition rate of knowledge of reproductive safety among HIV-infected people with fertility intention was 1.88 (95%CI: 1.10-3.22) times that of those without fertility intention. The cognition rate of knowledge of birth safety among HIV-infected persons who received AIDS knowledge promotion and education was 9.06 (95%CI: 2.46-33.32) times that of those who did not. The cognition rate of measures of birth safety was 5.3% (14/266). The Poisson regression analysis showed no significant difference in the cognition rate of specific measures among gender, age, education and other factors. Conclusions: HIV-infected people aged 18-45 years and married with a spouse have a low awareness of birth safety, and there are risks of HIV transmission between couples and mother-to-child in the family. Targeted birth safety education and intervention should be strengthened to reduce HIV transmission.

Application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process in risk assessment in medicine related fields / 中华流行病学杂志

Risks exist in medicine related fields, which cannot be defined and quantified precisely. It is necessary to adopt a method for the risk assessment of uncertain and fuzzy phenomenon. This paper summarizes the thinking, procedure, advantage and application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process in the risk assessment in medicine related fields for the purpose of providing reference for its further application.

A review of global and domestic HIV epidemic estimation / 中华流行病学杂志

Due to the latent characteristics of HIV infection, exceptionality of HIV high-risk population, social discrimination and insufficient awareness of AIDS prevention, timely testing and diagnosis of HIV infection is still a challenge worldwide. Until recently, it is difficult to exactly understand the overall HIV epidemic only using routine surveillance data. Therefore, epidemiological and statistical modeling is widely used to address this issue. Almost at the same time when AIDS was firstly discovered firstly, scientists also began to study the methods for the estimation and prediction of HIV infection epidemic. This article summarizes the development of global and domestic HIV epidemic estimation for the further understanding of its current performance and methods applied to provide reference for the future work.

Epidemiological characteristics of newly reported HIV-infected adolescents aged 15-17 years outside school in China, 2011-2019 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand the epidemiological characteristics of HIV-infected adolescents outside school in China and provide reference to targeted prevention and control of HIV infection in this population. Methods: All the HIV-infected adolescents aged 15-17 years outside school reported during 2011-2019 were included this study. The information about their demographics, transmission routes and migration were collected from HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Response Information Management System. The χ2 test was done for comparison among groups. The Joinpoint 4.9.0 software was applied to the annual percent change (APC) for time trends analysis using the Joinpoint regression model. The Excel 2019 and SPSS 22.0 software were used for data cleaning and statistical analysis. Results: A total of 4 919 HIV-infected adolescents aged 15-17 years outside school were reported accumulatively in China between 2011 and 2019, accounting for 63.4% (4 919/7 757) of total reported HIV-infected cases in this age group. Analysis on trend revealed that the new HIV infection diagnosis rate has become stable since 2016 (APC=2.5%, P=0.173) after the increase between 2011 and 2015 (APC=36.4%, P<0.001). The migration across provinces was discovered in 13.9% (684/4 919) of the HIV-infected adolescents outside school. Males, workers, and those diagnosed in detention centers or transmitted by injecting drugs or homosexual contacts accounted for a larger proportion in migrated cases compared with non-migrated cases. The adolescents outside school mainly got HIV infected by sexual contacts route, in which 66.5% (280/421) of the males were infected by homosexual contacts, while 97.8% (182/186) of the females were infected by heterosexual contacts in 2019. Conclusions: HIV-infected adolescents aged 15-17 years outside school were mainly infected by sexual contacts. However, adolescents outside school have low awareness of sexual health and high mobility, to whom close attention should be paid to improve their awareness of sexual health and to provide them with appropriate HIV infection prevention and treatment service.

An investigation of vaccination in children with human immunodeficiency virus infection / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the status of vaccination in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.@*METHODS@#A questionnaire survey was performed in 148 children in Hunan province, China who were registered in China's Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Comprehensive Response Information Management System up to December 31, 2016 and were aged <15 years at the time of confirmed diagnosis of HIV infection. The information on vaccination, diagnosis of HIV infection, and diagnosis and treatment of related diseases was collected.@*RESULTS@#Of the 148 children with HIV infection, there were 70 boys (47.3%) and 78 girls (52.7%); 140 children had an age of 3.8 (0.2-14.8) years at the time of confirmed diagnosis, and 8 children refused to answer this question. Mother-to-child transmission was found in 133 children (91.7%), blood transmission in 1 child (0.7%), and unknown in 14 children (9.5%). Of the 148 children, 129 (87.2%) received antiviral therapy and 19 (12.8%) did not receive such treatment. The vaccination rates of hepatitis B vaccine, bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, poliomyelitis live attenuated vaccine and diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine ranged from 70.9% to 77.7%, which was significantly lower than the national level (≥97%); the vaccination rates of the other vaccines in the National Immunization Program gradually decreased with age. No severe adverse effects were reported after vaccination.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Mother-to-child transmission is the main route of HIV infection in Chinese children. The diagnosis of children with HIV infection is significantly delayed, with low vaccination rates. Efforts should be made to strengthen early diagnosis, early treatment and vaccination in children with HIV infection, in order to improve their quality of life.

Analysis on late diagnosis reasons of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To understand the characteristics of HIV/AIDS patients with late diagnosis and find the factors associated with late HIV detection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HIV late diagnosed patients and early diagnosed patients, which were identified and classified by definition in advance, were selected from the case reporting database of HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Response Information Management System in eight counties of four provinces (Zhumadian, Nanyang, and Zhoukou of Hennan province; Liuzhou and Lingshan county of Guangxi autonomous region; Guangzhou and Shenzhen of Guangdong province; Dehong of Yunnan province) between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. A total of 3912 eligible patients were investigated, including 2496 late diagnosis and 1416 early diagnosis. The structured questionnaires were used to obtain information on behaviors, HIV detection history and reason of late detection for all eligible HIV/AIDS patients. Late diagnosed patients were defined by CD4 T-cell counts less than 200 cells/mm(3) or diagnosis as AIDS within the reported year after the first HIV positive test. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods were used to analyze the characteristics of HIV/AIDS late diagnosed patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Only 14.2% (350/2469) of them have ever had the awareness of "to go for HIV testing", 68.8% (150/218)of which did not put it into practice within one month because of discrimination and stigma. Among those HIV late diagnosed patients without the awareness of "to go for HIV testing", the proportions of "never worried about HIV infection" or "never heard of AIDS" were 69.7% (1476/2116) and 18.1% (383/2116), respectively. When those HIV late diagnosed patients visited health settings because of AIDS related symptoms, only 40.0% (590/1475) of them received the HIV testing service. Furthermore, 54.5% (322/590) of those received HIV testing were not informed the results. Compared with early diagnosed patients, patients with late diagnosis were over 50 years old (OR = 4.14, 95%CI: 3.09 - 5.55), primary school education (OR = 1.29, 95%CI: 1.10 - 1.52) and illiteracy (OR = 2.15, 95%CI: 1.25 - 2.82), Routes of transmission from former illegal blood or plasma (OR = 2.91, 95%CI: 2.27 - 3.74) and transfusion of blood/blood products (OR = 2.79, 95%CI: 2.11 - 3.68). Late diagnosed patients were identified mainly from voluntary counseling and testing (45.4%, 1130/1528) and medical institutions (38.3%, 954/1469).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The main reasons for late diagnosis of HIV infection are low initiative of HIV testing and discrimination and stigma. Furthermore, the low awareness of medical institutions to actively provide HIV testing affects the early diagnosis of HIV infections.</p>

Public health situation and needs assessment after Wenchuan earthquake in Anxian, Sichuan province / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the public health situation and needs in Anxian after Wenchuan earthquake so as to make an effective strategy for disease control and prevention.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>69 concentrated settlements with 100 residents were investigated. Probability proportion to size was adopted for sampling of 2200 residents from 687 scattered households (about 440 000 scattered residents). The content of this survey included drinking water, food hygiene, environment sanitation, planning immunity and medical health service, disease surveillance and so on. SPSS 16.0 was used for data analysis, and statistical interpretation was used to describe the results.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>90.9% (31/66) resettled residents in Anxian lived in tents, 7.6% (5/66) lived in the movable-plate house, 93.3% (621/666) scattered households lived in tents and 71.9% (446/621) of them lived in tents which were built by residents themselves; the rate of drinking water disinfection in resettlement sites and scattered households were 97.1% (66/68) and 94.6% (650/687); 12.8% scattered residents had mouldy or food; 50% of resettlement sites raised animals; 43.6% (17/39) medical station didn't have bacterin inoculation service; 66.7% (10/15) lacked sufficient disinfection equipment; register rate was 50.0% (33/66) and report rate of symptoms and infectious diseases was 56.1% (37/66).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There was still some risk of enteric and vector-borne diseases in Anxian, therefore, some tailored measures should be very important.</p>

Mental health assessment among scattered residents after Wenchuan earthquake in Anxian, Sichuan province / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the mental health status of residents scattered living in Anxian after Wenchuan earthquake so as to provide scientific basis for further mental health intervention.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A face to face interview was conducted among the scattered residents with designed questionnaire, which had three parts of the physical and emotional reaction, the relax methods and the social care and supports expected. Two-stage probability proportional to size (PPS) sample method was performed to sample 2184 from 0.44 million scattered residents in Anxian. On the basis of statistical description, mental health of different characteristics groups was compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Three main symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorders in 2184 residents (11.23+/-3.44) were higher than the 103 fire victims in Hunan in 2003 (10.06+/-3.26), three factor scores of SCL-90 (5.76+/-1.74) were higher than normal in 1998 repair mode (n=23 891) (4.72+/-1.44), and the statistical difference was observed (t=10.77, P<0.05; t=706.04, P<0.05). Comparing the mental health of different groups, some significant differences were found by age, gender and education background.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The earthquake disaster brought prevalent physical and emotional reaction. Elderly people, female, junior students need mental intervention immediately. Therefore, strengthen the mental education and assistance (especially in high risk groups) would be of more significance.</p>

Study on the characteristics of sexual networks for men who have sex with men recruited at different sites in Harbin / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To identify the characteristics of the sexual networks and HIV/AIDS related high-risk behaviors among MSM in Harbin city, and to evaluate the possibility of HIV transmission among MSM and from MSM to general population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A face to face questionnaire investigation was conducted among 673 MSM aged above 18 years older from May to July, 2006 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. The Key-informant sampling and time-location sampling methods were used at different sites to recruit objectives, including bars, bathrooms, parks and social networks.Mixing matrices were computed based on the demographic characteristics of MSM and their sexual partners. Sexual networks analysis by egocentric methods, such as network size, density and sexual mixing patterns.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 647 questionnaires were completed. The number of them recruited from bars, bathrooms, parks and social networks were 229, 291, 36 and 91. The average size of sexual networks was 14 persons, the least network density was 0.14. The proportion of having sexual relationship in the past year was 30.5% (647/2123). Of which recruited at bars, bathrooms, parks and social networks, the proportions of having long-term relationship with their sex partners were 22.8% (159/699), 35.9% (329/917), 26.4% (28/106) and 32.7% (131/401), respectively. There was statistical significance in MSM having sexual relationship with their partners at different recruited places (chi(2) = 34.07, P < 0.01). Sexual networks of MSM from public bathroom was larger with an average number of 18. Only 35.9% (329/917) of them had long-term relationship with their sex partners. A tendency for age and marriage pairing to cluster around main diagonal suggesting that MSM were similar to choosing sexual partners in the respect of age and marriage status. The proportions of consistent condom use in the past 6 months were 40.9% (647/2123).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>MSM from different sites have greatly different sexual networks characteristics. Sexual mixing patterns are weakly assertive in the MSM and potential of HIV spread among MSM exists.</p>

Study on the patterns of sexual contact and behavioral features of men who have sex with men / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the patterns of sexual contact and behavioral features of men who have sex with men (MSM) and to analyze the related potential risks:</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A face to face interview with a standardized questionnaire was conducted on 673 MSM from May to July, 2006 in Haerbin, Heilongjiang province. Mixing matrices were computed based on characteristics of MSM and their sexual partners and different models were used for goodness-of-fit.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>648 questionnaires were completed. Age and marriage status of sexual contact patterns were assertive with values of Q which were found to be 0.03 and 0.41, respectively. Values of Q showed big difference according to age and marriage status of sexual mixing Patterns among different sites. A tendency for age and marriage pairing in clustering around main diagonal (table 5, table 6) suggested that MSM and their partners were similar in ages and marriages while young MSM tend to have older partners. Most of the MSM had large number of sexual partners and frequently changing their sexual partners. The proportions of consistent condom use changed greatly (chi2 = 76.22, P < 0.001) over time with the proportions of consistent condom use and commercial sex behaviors among 15-24 age groups of 50.9% and 22.5%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Among MSM, sexual mixing patterns were weakly assertive,suggesting potential HIV transmission risk did exist since high risk behavior often occurred among MSM and their sexual partners.</p>