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Background: Sexual risk behavior and STDs are prevalent among HIV-infected MSM.
Objectives: We sought to investigate how often health care providers of HIV-infected MSM were asking about STD-risk behaviors in their patients. We also investigated whether physicians were more likely to consistently ask about STD risk behavior than non-physicians.
Methods: Providers of health care for HIV-infected MSM at eight urban clinics completed a written survey about whether they performed specific practices related to STD prevention on initial and follow up visits. Results were compared using Chi-square testing.
Results: For initial visits, 93 of 112 respondents (83.0%) reported “always” asking if a patient was sexually active; for routine visits, 50 (44.6%) reported “always” asking. For initial visits, 81 (72.3%) reported always asking about consistent condom use or other barrier use during sexual activity; for routine visits, 47 (42.0%) reported always asking. For initial visits, 69 (61.6%) reported always asking number of partners; for routine visits, 35 (31.3%). For initial visits, 71 (63.4%), reported always asking the type of sexual activity; for routine visits, 33 (29.5%). For initial visits, 47 (42.0%) reported always asking about alcohol and drugs during sexual activity; for routine visits, 30 (26.8%). For initial visits, physicians were significantly more likely to report “always” asking about sexual risk behavior than non physicians (54/58 vs. 39/54, p<0.01); but not for follow up visits (23/58 vs. 27/54, p=0.27).
Conclusions: More providers in this survey reported always asking about specific sexual risk factors on initial visits than on routine visits.
Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research: Health care providers can not begin to accurately assess STD risk nor help patients to avoid risk behaviors if they do not ask about them. Future work could seek to assess and avoid such missed opportunities, particularly on routine clinical visits.