Online health-searching behavior among HIV-Seropositive and HIV-seronegative men who have sex with men in the Baltimore and Washington,DC area

Background: searching online for health information is common among american adults. however,there have been few studies to investigate the online health-searching behaviors among men who have sex with men (msm) with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv). objective: to estimate the prevalence of internet use among hiv-seropositive msm and compare their online behaviors with hiv-seronegative men with chronic disease(s). methods: this study was performed at the baltimore/washington,dc site of the multicenter aids cohort study (macs). a total of 200 macs participants were asked to answer a self-administered questionnaire on a first-come basis during a semiannual study visit (from july to november 2011); 195 (97.5%) participants completed the survey. multiple logistic regression models were used to investigate the factors influencing their online health-searching behaviors. results: the median age of the 195 msm participants was 57 years,64.6% were white,59.0% were employed,and 88.2% had internet access at home and/or other locations. of the 95 hiv-seropositive participants,89.5% currently used highly active antiretroviral therapy (haart) and 82.1% had internet access. after adjusting for age and race/ethnicity,the hiv-seropositive participants were less likely to perform online searches for general disease-related information compared to the hiv-seronegative men with chronic disease(s) (or 0.20,95% ci 0.06-0.68,p=.01). there were no statistically significant associations with hiv status and searching for new medications/treatments (or 0.55,95% ci 0.19-1.55,p=.26) or support/advice from other patients (or 0.52,95% ci 0.18-1.53,p=.24). increasing age by 5 years led to a decrease by 29% in the odds of online health-related searches for general information (or 0.71,95% ci 0.52-0.98,p=.03) and 26% for support/advice from other patients (or 0.74,95% ci 0.56-0.98,p=.03). a decrease of 25% for new medications/treatments was also seen,but was not statistically significant (or 0.75,95% ci 0.57-1.01,p=.06). conclusions: this study shows that hiv-seropositive msm have similar online health-searching behaviors as hiv-seronegative men with chronic disease(s). independent of hiv status,older msm are less likely to perform online health-related searches.