Location:
The Kirby Institute Level 6 Seminar Room Wallace Wurth Building UNSW Australia Sydney NSW 2052
Open to
All
Contact for enquiries
The Kirby Institute Reception 9385 0900
Kirby Institute is pleased to present:
Ian Down - "Experiences of HIV: The Seroconversion Study"
Abstract:
The HIV Seroconversion study collects both quantitative and qualitative data from people in Australia who have recently been diagnosed with HIV. The study aims to identify demographic, behavioural, social, situational, and other factors associated with HIV infection and describe individuals’ experiences of diagnosis and the period after diagnosis in order to inform the response to HIV.
Participants are recruited through community organisation programs servicing those who have recently been diagnosed, and through clinic sites with a high caseload of recent HIV diagnoses, as well as through more broad-based publicity. Between 2007-2013, 506 gay and bisexual men completed an online survey questionnaire, of whom, 95 were interviewed face-to-face.
This presentation will provide a broad overview of the characteristics of men in Australia who have recently been diagnosed, including: the men’s prior testing history, their motivations for testing at time of diagnosis; details of the events that led to them acquiring HIV; and their experiences since being diagnosed, including their thoughts about HIV treatments.
Biography:
Ian Down is an Associate Lecturer in the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute, and is also affiliated with the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University.
Ian joined the Kirby Institute in 2009 to work on the Seroconversion Study, after a role as Research and Policy Officer at ACON. He has been involved in a range of studies of gay men and sexual practices, including: the Gay Community Periodic Survey; the TOMS (Three or More) Study; the PASH (Pleasure and Sexual Health) Study; Cairns’ ‘Out on the Reef’ project; and the social research components of modelling and acceptability projects assessing interventions to reduce both syphilis and HIV among gay men.
Ian is in the final year of his PhD, which is based on data collected through the Seroconversion Study.