News Finding: The four critical timepoints participants identified were (1) looking for sex partners, (2) choosing sex partners, (3) lead up to hookup, and (4) immediately before or during hookup.
Paper Finding: Developing a better understanding of behaviors that could be facilitating safer sex practices by men at high risk for HIV could ultimately contribute to innovative harm reduction interventions that are highly relevant to this population.
News Context: While these are wildly important, more programming is needed to help sustain, support, and supplement the individual efforts of HIV-negative black gay and bisexual men. The four critical timepoints participants identified were (1) looking for sex partners, (2) choosing sex partners, (3) lead up to hookup, and (4) immediately before or during hookup. One strategy participants reported using when looking for sexual partners was avoiding bathhouses and social venues that gay men frequent.
Paper Context: They found that PWID who remained both HIV and HCV negative had developed strategies for ''symbiotic goals'' (such as avoiding withdrawal) as well as deliberate strategies that helped them to avoid infection. Developing a better understanding of behaviors that could be facilitating safer sex practices by men at high risk for HIV could ultimately contribute to innovative harm reduction interventions that are highly relevant to this population. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a positive deviance approach to study adaptive strategies among MSM.