Excessive Drinking Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Recruited From Web-Based Resources : Cross-sectional Questionnaire Study
Pérez-Romero, César (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)
Guerras, Juan Miguel (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública)
Hoyos, Juan (Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Departamento de Salud Pública y Materno-Infantil)
Donat, Marta (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública)
Barrio, Gregorio (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública)
de la Fuente Galán, Luis (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública)
Palma, David (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau)
García de Olalla, Patricia (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau)
Belza, María José (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	Background: US and Northern European studies have found a higher prevalence of alcohol-related problems among men who have sex with men (MSM) than among the general population of men (GPM). However, most of them relied on traditional sampling methods, not profiting from MSM dating apps and websites for recruitment. Besides, analogous comparisons in Southern Europe are lacking. Objective: This study aimed to compare several indicators of excessive drinking between MSM and GPM in Spain. Methods: Overall, 5862 MSM were recruited through dating apps or websites for the Méthysos Project, and 10,349 GPM were recruited using probability sampling via the Household Survey on Alcohol and Drugs in Spain from 2018 to 2020. The outcomes were the prevalence of hazardous or harmful drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT] ≥8), hazardous drinking (AUDIT-Consumption ≥4), harmful drinking (AUDIT-Problem ≥4), regular hazardous drinking (>14 standard drinks per week), and monthly binge drinking. The prevalence of excessive drinking indicators was calculated for MSM and GPM and compared using the adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR). Two different aPRs and their 95% CIs were estimated using Poisson regression models with robust variance. The first was adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, and the second was adjusted for the aforementioned covariates plus other drug use. Results: The prevalence of hazardous or harmful drinking was 15. 6% (913/5862) among MSM versus 7. 7% (902/10,349) among GPM. After adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, the risk was higher in MSM than in GPM for harmful or hazardous drinking (aPR 1. 8, 95% CI 1. 6-2. 0), harmful drinking (aPR 2. 3, 95% CI 2. 0-2. 7), and binge drinking (aPR 1. 7, 95% CI 1. 5-1. 9); the same in both populations for hazardous drinking (aPR 0. 9, 95% CI 0. 9-1. 0); and higher in GPM than in MSM for regular hazardous drinking (aPR 0. 7, 95% CI 0. 6-0. 9). The relative excess risk of harmful drinking and binge drinking among MSM tended to increase with increasing education level and size of the place of residence, and the opposite was true for the deficit risk in regular hazardous drinking. Additional adjustment for other drug use greatly buffered the relative excess risk in harmful drinking and binge drinking in MSM, while it deepened its deficit risk in regular hazardous drinking. Conclusions: The use of web-based resources allowed recruiting a large sample of MSM. The risk of hazardous or harmful drinking was 80% greater in MSM than in GPM, which was mainly because of the higher risk of harmful drinking and binge drinking among MSM. Nearly 1 in 6 MSM would benefit from early brief alcohol intervention procedures. The subgroup with harmful or binge drinking combined with other drug use is an important contributor to excess MSM risk in hazardous or harmful drinking and must be a priority target for harm reduction interventions.
Grants:	Ministerio de Sanidad 2019I017
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Alcohol use ; Men who have sex with men ; MSM ; Dating apps or websites ; New recruitment methods ; Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test ; AUDIT ; Hazardous drinking ; Harmful drinking ; Binge drinking ; Alcohol-related problems
Published in:	JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, Vol. 8 Núm. 10 (october 2022) , p. e32888, ISSN 2369-2960

DOI: 10.2196/32888
PMID: 36315235

18 p, 215.1 KB

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Articles > Research articles
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