Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is advised for males who have sex with men (MSM). Concerns have been raised that MSM will increase sexual risk behaviours following HPV vaccination, a process known as risk compensation. The prevalence of, and variables related with, behavioural intention to lower the frequency of condom usage in males following HPV vaccination was studied in this study. The research was based on the baseline sample of an ongoing randomised controlled trial in Hong Kong promoting HPV vaccination among MSM. Multiple sources were used to recruit Hong Kong Chinese-speaking MSM who had never been immunised against HPV. From July through December 2017, a total of 624 people completed the baseline survey. After getting the HPV vaccine, the prevalence of behaviour intention to reduce the frequency of condom use with regular and non-regular male sex partners was 6.9 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively; 8.0 percent of them planned to reduce condom usage with either kind of male partners. After controlling for important background factors, two components from the Health Action Process Approach model’s pre-intentional phase were substantially related with the dependent variable in the predicted direction.

They were (1) favourable outcome expectations of condomless anal intercourse after HPV vaccination and (2) perceived self-efficacy of consistent condom usage after HPV vaccination. When encouraging HPV vaccination among MSM, risk compensation may not be a key consideration. The findings should give comfort to health-care professionals and policymakers.

Reference:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1622975

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