Indicators of male bisexual activity in semimetropolitan New South Wales: implications for HIV prevention strategies.

Between July 1993 and March 1994, advertising in the personal columns of local print media was used as a subterfuge to obtain access to homosexually active men living on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The men were invited to make contact by phone and were then requested to answer 44 survey questions. The survey was based on a premise that there existed a subgroup of homosexually active men who did not identify themselves as gay and who were behaviourally bisexual (the study population). Out of 296 contacts, 106 completed questionnaires concerning demographics, aspects of sexual behaviour, and attitudes and knowledge about sexual practice and self-definition. The sampling did provide access to a predominantly behaviourally bisexual group of men who did not identify themselves as gay and for whom the use of 'beats' was the most common method for meeting other men. There existed a high degree of accurate knowledge and practice of safe sex. However, several areas of concern warrant continued and new strategies to minimise the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in the study population. While the results might not be generalisable to the entire population of behaviourally bisexual men who do not identify themselves as gay, they do (in the absence of other successful ways of reaching this group), provide a useful indicator for the development of such strategies.