A longitudinal analysis of behavioural and biological risk among men who have sex with men in metro Vancouver

Our team proposes a secondary data analysis of the Momentum Health Study (momentumstudy.ca), an ongoing prospective bio-behavioural cohort study of 698 men who have sex with men (MSM) in Metro Vancouver that began recruitment in 2012. Our main objectives are to: 1) calculate the biological incidence rate of HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis infection among MSM who report (or do not report) certain behaviours to identify sub-groups with zero or very low risk of infection; and 2) evaluate the stability of individual risk-based factors (behaviour based) over time within MSM to inform time period windows for deferral criteria. To date, 551 HIV-negative participants have contributed a median follow-up time of 2.98 years, providing biological specimens for HIV, HCV and syphilis testing at each visit. We will identify a “low-risk” sub-group of sexually-active MSM who could be eligible to donate and would not introduce any additional risk to the blood supply. To do so, we will identify a limited set of necessary behavioural questions to develop an individual risk assessment donor policy, potentially implementable as “gender-blind”. Given our extensive dataset, we will also provide the necessary parameter estimates required to evaluate whether there would be any increased risk introduced to the blood supply if the current deferral policy were changed.

LACHOWSKY, Nathan

University of Victoria

MSM Research Grant Program

British Columbia

$50,000