Despite the high HIV incidence among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China, over half of MSM have never been tested for HIV before (MSMNT). Through a serial cross-sectional study from 2012 to 2016 in Shenyang, China, we studied 1036 MSMNT, and diagnosed 16.2% (168/1036) with HIV. The percentage of MSMNT who had condomless anal intercourse (CAI) in the past year increased from 42.1% (130/309) in 2012 to 63.4% (102/161) in 2016 (P < 0.001). 61.9% (104/168) of HIV-positive MSMNT had CAI and this percentage remained constant for the study period (P = 0.593). 53.3% (463/868) of HIV-negative MSMNT had CAI and this percentage significantly increased over the study period (P < 0.001). Encouraging HIV testing in this key subset through online HIV risk self-evaluation tools and HIV self-testing kits may help mitigate the overall MSM HIV incidence.
Keywords: HIV prevalence; HIV testing; Men who have sex with men; Risk-evaluation.