Relationship Between Sexual Behaviors with Non-committed Relationship Partners and COVID-19 Restrictions and Notification Rates: Results from a Longitudinal Study of Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia

Daniel Storer; Garrett Prestage; Hamish McManus; Lisa Maher; Benjamin R Bavinton; Jeanne Ellard; Fengyi Jin; Steven Philpot; Martin Holt; Peter Saxton; Bridget Haire; Dean Murphy; Mohamed A Hammoud

doi:10.1007/s13178-022-00733-8

Relationship Between Sexual Behaviors with Non-committed Relationship Partners and COVID-19 Restrictions and Notification Rates: Results from a Longitudinal Study of Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia

Sex Res Social Policy. 2023;20(2):825-836. doi: 10.1007/s13178-022-00733-8. Epub 2022 May 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ The Kirby Institute, UNSW, Wallace Wurth Building, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia.
² Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.
³ Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Department of Social and Community Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 related lockdowns have impacted the sexual activity of gay and bisexual men (GBM). We investigated trends in sexual behaviors and the COVID-19 context in which they occurred (COVID-notification rates and jurisdictional restrictions) to understand changes in the duration and severity of periods of lockdown on the sexual behavior of Australian GBM.

Methods: In an online, prospective observational study of 831 GBM from May 2020 to May 2021, we investigated associations between changes in sexual behavior among Australian GBM, lockdowns, and COVID-19 notification rates through weekly surveys from May 2020 to May 2021.

Results: The mean age was 45.71 years (SD: 13.93). Most identified as gay (89.0%) and 10.2% were living with HIV. There was an overall increase in the mean weekly number of non-committed relationship partners (0.53-0.90, p < 0.001). The state of Victoria experienced a significant extended COVID-19 outbreak, accompanied by severe lockdown restrictions. In response, Victorian men's partner numbers shifted three times, while elsewhere there was an overall gradually increasing trend.

Conclusions: Less severe outbreaks with shorter lockdown periods, involving fewer and geographically contained, COVID-19 notifications were accompanied by non-significant changes in sex with non-relationship partners than more severe outbreaks over extended periods and larger geographical areas.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13178-022-00733-8.

Keywords: COVID-19 notifications; COVID-19 restrictions; Gay and bisexual men; Lockdown; Sexual behavior.