Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Proceedings of the Summer Scientific Meeting of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine 2015

2016; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 185; Issue: S12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s11845-016-1509-4

1863-4362

KI Quintyne, Hugh Cowley, Josephine Clancy, Busi Mooka, Margaret M. Mannix, Anne Dee, A O’Farrell, Russell Canavan, Kevin P. Balanda, Robert J. Glynn, Patricia Harrington, María O'Neill, Máirín Ryan,

Healthcare Systems and Public Health

The use of social media (SM) for sexual networking has become increasingly popular within the last 5 years.The current study aimed to determine if SM use for sexual networking among attendees of a sexual health service in UHL was associated with increased incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).Data were collected from 01/01/2014 to 31/03/2014.A total of 383 attendees at UHL who had undergone STI screening agreed to participate and provided demographic, clinical, sexual health and SM information.These were correlated with serlogical tests in all cases.Regression analysis was performed.Participants who used SM for sexual networking were more likely to: be male (RR 1.963; 95% CI 1.612-2.390;p \ 0.001), MSMs (RR 5.834; 95% CI 3.302-10.300;p, 0.001), \6 sexual partners in last 3 months (RR 6.894; 95% CI 1.984-23.956;p = 0.002), use alcohol (RR 1.644; 95% CI 1.315-2.056;p \ 0.001), use recreational drugs (RR 3.586;; p \ 0.001) and, have an STI confirmed (RR 1.350; 95% CI 0.981-1.850;p = 0.066).There were no significant differences in types of STI between those who used SM for sexual networking and those who did not.The present study concludes that attendees of the sexual health service who used SM for sexual networking were at greater risk of a STI, than those who did not.Future interventions could explore the use of SM for testing promotion, prevention and education on sexual health issues.