The Importance of Contextualizing Research

SUMMARY

A comparative analysis of the effects of various forms of sexual relationship on;the frequency of risk behavior was conducted among gay men in Germany who participated in a survey via the gay press in 1996 (n = 3048). Of the West Germans, 22.1% of the men had at least one act of unprotected anal intercourse with a partner whose status was unknown (in the twelve months preceding the survey) as compared to 25.7% of the East Germans. Unprotected anal intercourse without knowing the partner'S HIV status is considerably more frequent in steady relationships. Although risk behavior does occur in the context! of casual sexual encounters, this form of risk contact remains sporadic (one to four times in the twelve months preceding the survey). Unprotected anal intercourse between partners with differing HIVstatus was found among 3.1% of the West Germans and 3.7% of the East Germans. Differences according to type of partnership are less pronounced for these men. The data from the 1996 survey provide no support for younger gay men being at greater risk for HIV infection through sexual contact. For the un-der-21 age group, the percentage of men without anal-genital sexual experience is particularly jhigh and the percentage of men having had a higher number of sexual partners (more than 20 over the last twelve month) is considerably less for men under 25year than for the rest of the sample.