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GMSS objectives
The Gay Men’s Sex Survey is intended to inform the planning of HIV prevention interventions for men who have sex with men. The general research objectives are to describe the level and distribution of those HIV transmission risk behaviours and HIV prevention needs of most concern to health promoters in England and Wales. The specific research objectives are outlined below.
● Establish current concerns of research collaborators in HIV health promotion.
▸ Invite collaborators to suggest specific risk behaviours and prevention needs for measurement.
● Design a questionnaire to meet those needs within the methodological constraints of the survey.
▸ Design questionnaire based on all suggestions and circulate to collaborators with a request to prioritise questions.
▸ Pilot the questionnaire using cognitive interviews with 15-20 men recruited in community settings.
▸ Sign-off questionnaire content.
● Design and produce questionnaire in various formats.
● Recruit men who have sex with men living in the UK to the survey, inviting them to complete the survey online or on paper.
● Data management.
▸ Design and test database for manual data input of returns from booklets and Pride-type events prior to input of booklet and Pride event data.
▸ Ensure identical coding of all data prior to merger of web and manual input databases.
▸ Exclude non-qualifiers (females; living abroad; under 14 years of age; no evidence of past sex with men; no evidence of future intention to have sex with men; missing all data but demographics).
● Output data reports to collaborators.
▸ Select key variables from data set and compile reports containing counts of those variables for groups of 20 or more men recruited by the same agency.
▸ Send reports to research collaborators for local use.
▸ Compile Local Area Data Reports and post on this website.
▸ Send notification of posting to Sigma Research email list.
● Analyse and write-up Final Report.
▸ Carry out cross-tabulations of demographics (ie. potential intervention targets) by risk behaviours, needs and intervention measures.
▸ Compile report of key patterns, making recommendations for intervention design.
▸ Professionally design and print 2000 copies of the final report.
▸ Add report to this website as downloadable file and make the report orderable for postal delivery as hard copy.
▸ Send notification of availability to Sigma Research e-mail list.
● Produce gay community press insert.
▸ Write short overview highlighting key findings.
▸ Insert in a high-profile gay press title signposting the main report for the previous year, and encouraging men to participate in the current survey.
▸ Make loose copies of gay press insert available to collaborators for distribution in their service centres and online.
▸ Post gay press insert on this website.
● Respond to specific requests for data.
▸ Allow collaborators and others to request specific additional analysis of questions for local residents.
