Promotion of safe sex: evaluation of a community-level intervention programme in gay bars, saunas and sex shops.

This study was an evaluation of a safe sex promotion programme in gay bars, saunas and sex shops in Québec City. The impact of the intervention on safe sex was assessed by means of an interrupted sequential pre-interventions and post-interventions quasi-experimental design with independent samples. At each measurement time, approximately 320 individuals were recruited in gay bars and saunas and were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The intervention had a significant impact on safe sex mainly among the 18-29 age group (relative risk = 0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI95%] = 0.55-0.92), even after controlling for the effect of gay venue frequentation. Thus, the effect size of the intervention corresponds to a significant reduction of 29% in risky unprotected anal sex among this age group. Implementation of a theory-based community-level intervention has a positive impact on reducing unsafe sex practices, particularly among the 18-29 age group. However, if the preventive activities are not maintained on a regular basis, there is recrudescence in unsafe sex practices.