So you’ve just had a great sexual experience with a guy and as you’re getting dressed, he hands you a voucher. It turns out it’s not a store voucher for a product or service but…an invitation to participate in a sexual-health study?
While this may seem unusual at first, it’s something that may happen to you in the near future.
It’s part of a significant undertaking and collaboration by Canadian researchers and organizations called Engage, and it’s one of the first such studies to be simultaneously held in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The study is being funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN), and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR).
Nathan Lachowsky, an investigator for the Vancouver team, chatted with the Georgia Straight about Engage on a call from Auckland, New Zealand, where he’s doing research.
Lachowsky explained that this study builds upon a study started by the Momentum Health Study in Vancouver.
The ongoing Momentum study, which will examine HIV prevalence among 700 participating men who have sex with men (MSM), began in 2011 and will wrap up in about a year or two.
The new Engage study, Lachowsky explained, will provide the opportunity to conduct parallel cross-sectional studies in Canada’s three biggest cities to examine HIV and sexual health similarities and differences between them. He said they will look at how knowledge and options for prevention, testing, and treatment are changing. In particular, they’re hoping to observe how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) differs between cities as PrEP public programs vary from city to city.
“There are differences in the way that health services are provided and their accessibility across these three cities and three provinces,” he said. “So we’re interested in looking at the difference in awareness of treatment as prevention and uptake of knowledge of treatment as prevention.”
In order to participate, interested MSM must either receive (as previously mentioned) a voucher from someone already in the study or they can contact the study’s Vancouver office (604-558-2017) to inquire about eligibility as an initial participant.