Transactional sex among men who have sex with men participating in the CohMSM prospective cohort study in West Africa

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217115
• Publication Date: 2019-11-06T13:31:02Z
• Authors: Cheick Haïballa K...; Luis Sagaon-Teyssier; Pierre-Julien Cou...; Marion Mora; Gwenaelle Maradan; Michel Bourrelly; Abdoul Aziz Keita; Stéphane-Alain Ba...; Camille Anoma; Christian Coulibaly; Elias Ter Tiero Dah; Selom Agbomadji; Ephrem Mensah; Adeline Bernier; Clotilde Couderc; Bintou Dembélé Keita; Christian Laurent; Bruno Spire
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Safe Sex; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Science; Sexual Behavior; 610; HIV Infections; Cohort Studies; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 5. Gender equality; [SDV.MHEP.MI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Human health and pathology/Infectious diseases; Risk Factors; 616; Humans; Prospective Studies; Homosexuality, Male; 10. No inequality; Sex Workers; Q; R; 3. Good health; Africa, Western; Sexual Partners; Medicine; [SDV.MHEP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Human health and pathology; Research Article

AbstractMen who have sex with men (MSM) are at much greater risk of HIV infection in Africa. Little is known about their involvement in transactional sex (TS). We aimed to characterize MSM reporting TS (MSM-TS) and to identify factors associated with their sexual practices using data from the prospective cohort study CohMSM conducted in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Togo. Our study focused on HIV-negative MSM, recruited between 06/2015 and 01/2018 by a team of trained peer educators. Scheduled study visits at 6, 12 and 18 months included medical examinations, HIV screening, risk-reduction counselling and face-to-face interviews to collect information on their sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behaviours, and HIV risk-reduction strategies. Three stigmatization sub-scores were constructed. The generalized estimating equation method was used for data analysis. Of the 630 HIV-negative participants recruited at baseline, 463, 410 and 244 had a follow-up visit at 6- and 12- and 18-months, respectively. Over a total of 1747 visits, 478 TS encounters were reported by 289 MSM-TS (45.9%). Of the latter, 91 participants reported systematic TS (31.5%), 55 (19.0 %) stopped reporting TS after baseline, and 53 (18.3%) reported TS after baseline. Ninety participants (31.1 %) reported occasional TS. After adjusting for country of study and follow-up visits, the following factors, reported for the previous 6 months, were associated with a greater likelihood of TS: younger age, an educational level <high-school diploma, satisfaction with current sex life, group sex with men, multiple male sexual partners, condomless anal sex, receptive or versatile anal sex with male sexual partners, giving benefits in exchange for sex with a man, alcohol consumption and drug use during sex, and experiencing stigmatization. The majority of MSM in this study who received benefits in exchange for sex had high-risk HIV infection exposure practices and were characterized by socioeconomic difficulties.