Associations between ‘reported sex with non-steady partners since lockdown’ and sociodemographic factors, sexual practices, drug, alcohol and PrEP use
| Total sample n=694 | Did not have sex with non-steady partners during lockdown n=632 | Had sex with non-steady partners during lockdown n=62 | P value* | |
| n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | ||
| Sociodemographic factors | ||||
| Age | 0.205 | |||
| 18–35 | 252 (36.3) | 230 (36.4) | 22 (35.5) | |
| 36–55 | 364 (52.4) | 327 (51.7) | 37 (59.7) | |
| 56+ | 78 (11.2) | 75 (11.9) | 3 (4.8) | |
| Living in Belgium | 682 (98.3) | 621 (98.3) | 61 (98.4) | 1.000 |
| Region† | ||||
| Flanders | 459 (67.3) | 409 (65.9) | 50 (82.0) | 0.024 |
| Brussels Region | 166 (24.3) | 156 (25.1) | 10 (16.4) | |
| Wallonia | 57 (8.4) | 56 (9.0) | 1 (1.6) | |
| Has steady partner | 403 (58.1) | 375 (59.3) | 28 (45.2) | 0.031 |
| HIV-positive status‡ | 122 (18.1) | 99 (16.1) | 23 (38.3) | <0.001 |
| Financial hardship before lockdown§ | 39 (5.7) | 30 (4.8) | 9 (14.8) | 0.005 |
| Sexual practices in the 3 months before lockdown | ||||
| Sex with multiple partners | 454 (65.4) | 397 (62.8) | 57 (91.9) | <0.001 |
| Group sex | 246 (35.4) | 211 (33.4) | 35 (56.5) | <0.001 |
| Chemsex | 133 (19.2) | 110 (17.4) | 23 (37.1) | <0.001 |
| Sex work | 13 (1.9) | 9 (1.4) | 4 (6.5) | 0.022 |
| Drug and alcohol use in the 3 months before lockdown | ||||
| Drug use | 248 (35.7) | 212 (33.5) | 36 (58.1) | <0.001 |
| Alcohol use | 573 (82.6) | 524 (82.9) | 49 (79.0) | 0.442 |
| PrEP use | ||||
| Used PrEP in the last 6 months¶ | 199 (34.8) | 178 (33.4) | 21 (53.8) | 0.010 |
*P value for χ2 or Fisher’s exact test for associations between ‘having had sex with non-steady partners since 18 March’ and sociodemographic factors, sexual practices, drug, alcohol and PrEP use.
†‘Not living in Belgium’ (n=12) excluded.
‡‘Don’t know’ (n=18) or ‘prefer not to say’ (n=2) were excluded from the analyses.
§Proportion of those who indicated to be struggling with their income before 18 March; ‘Prefer not to say’ (n=7) were excluded from the bivariate analysis.
¶HIV-positive status (n=122) excluded.
PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis