The EMIS project
European MSM Internet survey on knowledge, attitudes and behaviour as to HIV and STIs
Current News:
EMIS has been launched on 4th of June, 2010, and will be online until 31st of August. It is promoted online and offline through media for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. As of July 12, 2010, the questionnaire has been completed by more than 128,000 MSM living in Europe, and more than 117,000 MSM living in the 27 EU member states. After 38 days online, EMIS is already the largest international study ever
conducted on homosexually active men. This strong response to a 20‐30 minute survey demonstrates both a highly acceptable instrument and high community engagement. Neither would have been possible without the participation and support of local, national, and international LGBT organizations, as well as pan‐European gay‐organised social online‐networks like GayRomeo and Manhunt. Be part of something huge!
Map of participating countries.
Background:
In most European countries, infections with HIV are concentrated among vulnerable groups like men who have sex with men (MSM), migrants, or users of intravenous drugs. In many countries, during the 1980s and early 1990s, a growing attention towards same-sex-relations issues, including gay rights, has been driven by a growing need of dealing with ongoing infections with a potentially lethal virus in vulnerable groups. Ressources for preventive behaviour and health maintaince among gay and bisexual men - for example access to adequate knowledge and information, access to HIV testing, access to HIV treatment - is strongly dependent on their general living conditions, or the degree of stigmatization of homosexuality and HIV infection.
Information on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour among hidden groups such as MSM is difficult to gather, as random samples cannot be drawn. Therefore, most studies on sexual minorities or other hidden groups rely on convenience samples recruited in gay venues (mostly sex-related places like saunas, parties or bars), GUM clinics, or HIV clinics. In recent years, the Internet has proven to be a useful tool for recruiting a broader spectrum of MSM in terms of age, education, or geographic distribution; thus including men who are not part of explicitly gay scenes, or men who reside in non-metropolitan areas. However, most existing surveys concentrate on national populations. At a European level, these results are very difficult to compare: Differing ways of accessing MSM lead to differences in the sample composition and hence to incomparable samples; and different questions targeting the same indicator result in incomparable answers. The EMIS project is the first approach in Europe to use a unique questionnaire and the same research design for prevention research among MSM.
Objectives:
General objective is to give input for improving 2nd generation surveillance and prevention work among MSM in the participating European countries. To achieve this, EMIS will generate comparable data about HIV and STI behaviour, HIV and STI prevention needs, gay community characteristics, and other sexual health-related issues among MSM in Europe by means of a common Internet survey, advertised and promoted on popular MSM websites and conducted in various European languages. The intended European survey will inform the planning of prevention interventions for MSM by identifying prevention needs unmet across diverse groups of MSM (priority aims), and identifying subgroups of MSM who have many prevention needs poorly met (priority target groups).
Methods:
Scientists who already have experience with internet surveys in MSM and scientists who so far only have experience with print questionnaires and venue-based sampling will collaborate in this project to develop a common set of core questions, conduct a simultaneous multilingual internet survey promoted on popular MSM websites all over Europe, and will jointly analyse and interpret the survey results.
Results:
The survey has started in June 2010 and runs for three months. The number of respondents from each country will be available directly after that, first results can be excepted by the end of 2010, and the final will be available in September 2011 on this page and the partners' websites.
Contact: EMIS@rki.de
