Attitudes toward online HIV/sexually-transmitted infection prevention programs and Internet user profiles among men who have sex with men]

To describe the attitudes of men who have sex with men (MSM) toward online HIV/sexually-transmitted infection (STI) prevention programs and to identify and characterize user profiles with regard to their attitudes toward online prevention programs.A survey in gay venues or via the internet was completed by 2,044 participants from Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and San Sebastián (Spain). The survey explored socio-demographic variables, sexual behavior and other risk behaviors associated with HIV infection, as well as attitudes toward online prevention programs. The statistical analysis included factor analysis and non-hierarchical cluster analysis.Most MSM had positive attitudes towards online HIV/STI prevention programs. Factor analysis revealed two factors: online prevention aimed at interaction and online prevention aimed at information. Based on these factors, three user profiles were identified: users oriented toward informative and interactive online prevention (53.5%), users oriented toward interactive online prevention (25.9%) and users were not oriented toward online prevention (20.7%). On characterizing these profiles, we observed a significant presence of men who were not interested in online prevention among those with a lower educational level, bisexual men and HIV-positive men. Conversely, those most receptive to online prevention were men self-identified as gay, those with a bachelors degree, those who had been tested for HIV and those who were HIV-negative.The internet can facilitate sexual health promotion among MSM. Characterization of user profiles offers the possibility of segmenting prevention programs and of combining online and offline strategies.