OBJECTIVETo study the patterns of sexual contact and behavioral features of men who have sex with men (MSM) and to analyze the related potential risks:

METHODSA face to face interview with a standardized questionnaire was conducted on 673 MSM from May to July, 2006 in Haerbin, Heilongjiang province. Mixing matrices were computed based on characteristics of MSM and their sexual partners and different models were used for goodness-of-fit.

RESULTS648 questionnaires were completed. Age and marriage status of sexual contact patterns were assertive with values of Q which were found to be 0.03 and 0.41, respectively. Values of Q showed big difference according to age and marriage status of sexual mixing Patterns among different sites. A tendency for age and marriage pairing in clustering around main diagonal (table 5, table 6) suggested that MSM and their partners were similar in ages and marriages while young MSM tend to have older partners. Most of the MSM had large number of sexual partners and frequently changing their sexual partners. The proportions of consistent condom use changed greatly (chi2 = 76.22, P < 0.001) over time with the proportions of consistent condom use and commercial sex behaviors among 15-24 age groups of 50.9% and 22.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONAmong MSM, sexual mixing patterns were weakly assertive,suggesting potential HIV transmission risk did exist since high risk behavior often occurred among MSM and their sexual partners.