Factors influencing the sexual health of Asian men who have sex with men (Updated 2012)

Key take-home messages

• A systematic review of the literature conducted by Wei et al. (2011) suggests that Asian and Pacific Islander MSM have comparable high-risk sexual behaviors, number of sex partners and unprotected sex partners as MSM of other races/ethnicities.
• Asian and Pacific Islanders were found to be the only ethnic population in a US study with a significant increase in HIV diagnosis rates during the period 2001 through 2008. In addition, 61% of Asian and Pacific Islanders diagnosed with HIV in the US were MSM.
• Culturally competent health care practices are a potentially important strategy for addressing health disparities and there is a need for culturally specific training of health care professionals and health administrators serving these populations.
• Having two potentially conflicting social identities — being Asian and being gay — is very complex and requires the ability to balance both identities and maintain personal satisfaction and comfort with being both Asian and gay. In addition, racism within the gay community may lead to socially and contextually prescribed sexual roles for Asian and Pacific Islander MSM that may contribute to the practice of unsafe sex among this group.
• The systematic review by Wei et al. (2011) also found that substance use/abuse is as prevalent among both Asian and Pacific Islander men and those of other races/ethnicities. In addition, while finding that frequent-heavy alcohol use, polydrug use, frequent drug use and non-injection drug use were not significantly associated with race/ethnicity, two of the three studies found that Asian and Pacific Islander men were less likely to have injected drugs.

• Epidemiology and Determinants of Health
  • Epidemiology
• Determinants of Health
  • Health services
  • Stigma/discrimination
• Population(s)
  • Men who have sex with men
  • Ethnoracial communities
• Substance Use
  • Alcohol
  • Nonmedicinal drugs
• Co-infections
  • Gonorrhea