Population size and self-reported characteristics and sexual preferences of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in Germany based on social network data

Stefan Michael Scholz; Oliver Damm; Svenja Elkenkamp; Ulrich Marcus; Wolfgang Greiner; Axel Jeremias Schmidt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212175

Population size and self-reported characteristics and sexual preferences of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in Germany based on social network data

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 14;14(2):e0212175. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212175. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Stefan Michael Scholz^{1

2}, Oliver Damm¹, Svenja Elkenkamp¹, Ulrich Marcus³, Wolfgang Greiner¹, Axel Jeremias Schmidt⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, Dept. Health Economics and Health Management, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
² Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH), Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
³ Robert Koch Institute, Dept. Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Sigma Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Background: In the absence of detailed information about the population size and behaviour data of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), the estimation of prevalence rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the design of public health interventions become difficult. The aim of the present study is to estimate the lower boundary of age-specific population sizes and retrieve self-reported information from this population.

Methods: We used publicly accessible data from a large online dating and social network website for MSM in Germany to retrieve data on the age and regional distribution of profiles. The profiles were also stratified by their information on the preferred position during anal intercourse, safer sex, and sexual identity.

Results: A total of 464,873 user profiles correspond to an average 15.2 profiles per 1,000 male inhabitants in Germany, varying between 7.6 and 45.6 across federal states. Although the information on the absolute numbers for different age groups is limited by the search engine, age-specific relative frequencies were found to increase from 12.9 in the age group of 18 to 20 year olds to 24.6 profiles per 1,000 male inhabitants in the 28 to 30 year olds. The data shows age-specific trends for safer sex with an increasing easiness of reporting "never" engaging in safer sex or stating that safer sex "needs discussion" with increasing age. Around one third of profile owners stated to be versatile with respect to the preferred position in anal intercourse. All other options ("only bottom", "more bottom", "only top", "more top") were preferred equally likely by roughly 10% of profile owners, respectively.

Conclusions: Online social network or dating sites can provide some information about specific populations in the absence of other data sources. The presented results are the first to report age-specific rates of MSM per 1,000 male inhabitants in Germany and may be useful to estimate age-specific prevalence or incidence rates as well as to inform health promotion activities and modelling studies for MSM in Germany.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Germany
Homosexuality, Male* / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Online Social Networking
Population Density
Safe Sex / statistics & numerical data
Self Report / statistics & numerical data
Sexual Behavior / statistics & numerical data
Young Adult

Grants and funding

We acknowledge the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Bielefeld University for the article processing charge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.