EMIS): Design and Methods
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Sex Res Soc Policy DOI 10.1007/s13178-013-0119-4 The European Men-Who-Have-Sex-With-Men Internet Survey (EMIS): Design and Methods Peter Weatherburn & Axel J. Schmidt & Ford Hickson & David Reid & Rigmor C. Berg & Harm J. Hospers & Ulrich Marcus & and the EMIS Network. # The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Community-based opportunistic self-completion move towards harmonisation of existing systems. Six asso- surveying for sexual health programming is common among ciated partners (APs) recruited another 77 collaborating men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in Europe, being used partners from academia, public health and civil society to generate evidence of unmet prevention need, for behav- across 35 countries. Partners’ existing MSM surveys were ioural surveillance and as a platform for advocating HIV collected and collated, producing a meta-survey which was precautions. However, comparing survey findings across discussed by all partners through rotating round-tables at a Europe is difficult because of varying measures and recruit- 2-day summit. Survey development continued iteratively ment designs, and surveying has not occurred in all coun- through user piloting and partner feedback until the English tries. EMIS (the European Men-who-have-sex-with-men language content was agreed. Transfer to an online survey Internet Survey) aimed to develop a pan-European Internet application was followed by further testing before on-screen survey on HIV-related male homosexual behaviours and translation into 24 other languages, final testing and sign- prevention needs both to increase research capacity and to off. The project’s visual identity and promotional materials were developed in close collaboration with national leads, : : : P. Weatherburn A. J. Schmidt F. Hickson (*) D. Reid tailoring products to match country specific needs while Sigma Research, Department of Social and Environmental Health, maintaining an overall project identity. Five international London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 MSM dating websites were contracted to send carefully Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK e-mail: [email protected] crafted instant messages to members in a series of waves. The survey sought common ground with stakeholders and P. Weatherburn ‘ ’ e-mail: [email protected] respondents by endorsing the best sex with the least harm for MSM. Real-time monitoring of responses allowed A. J. Schmidt e-mail: [email protected] targeted spending of the advertising budget to maximise coverage and depth of responses. Fieldwork occurred during D. Reid – e-mail: [email protected] June August 2010. Over 184,469 responses were submitted of which 94.4 % were eligible. Partners in 38 countries were R. C. Berg supplied with a national database of 100 or more respon- Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, (Nasjonalt dents for national analysis and outputs, while the AP team kunnskapssenter for helsetjenesten), P.O. Box 7004, St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway proceeded on international comparisons among 174,209 re- e-mail: [email protected] spondents in 38 countries. EMIS demonstrated the feasibil- ity of multi-country community-based MSM Internet H. J. Hospers surveying with limited public funding. The concept of ‘the University College Maastricht, Maastricht University, Zwingelput ’ 4, 6211 KH Maastricht, The Netherlands best sex with the least harm provided a common ground for e-mail: [email protected] a diverse range of stakeholders to collaborate. Meaningful involvement of a large number of collaborators in the survey U. Marcus design, its visual identity and in promotional strategies Department of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, P.O. Box 650261, 13302 Berlin, Germany ensured unprecedented coverage and depth of recruitment. e-mail: [email protected] Flexible planning was essential and a patchwork of recruitment Sex Res Soc Policy was required across a range of commercial and community towards third-generation surveillance by incorporating HIV partners. Careful design, piloting and presentation ensured the prevention needs. We define prevention needs as the psycho- survey was acceptable and had both authority and perceived social and material requirements for control over HIV risk and community benefit. precaution behaviours. They are dictated by the theories of behaviour being employed but may include such concepts as Keywords Male homosexuality . HIV . Community knowledge, social norms, control beliefs, access to resources, surveying . Behavioural surveillance . Prevention . Internet motor and interpersonal skills. In 2008, a study of HIV/STI behavioural surveillance in countries of the EU and European Free Trade Association Background mapped the current state of HIV/STI-related behavioural surveillance across Europe, with a focus on vulnerable HIV infection is a major public health concern across Eu- groups such as MSM (European Centre for Disease Preven- rope, and transmission during sex between men is increas- tion and Control. Mapping of HIV/STI Behavioural Surveil- ingly common. Among the 48 European countries lance in Europe. Stockholm 2009). Of the 31 countries consistently reporting HIV diagnoses and mode of transmis- surveyed, 28 responded, of which 16 claimed an established sion over the period 2004 to 2010, the number of new HIV behavioural surveillance system, 14 of which expressly diagnoses among men having sex with men (MSM) in- included MSM. Another four countries carried out periodic creased by 42 %, from 7,621 in 2004 to 10,854 in 2010. behavioural surveys among MSM. The study acknowledged (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control/WHO that in some small countries such systems may be difficult to Regional Office for Europe: HIV/AIDS surveillance in Eu- justify, and in others, MSM may be especially hard to recruit rope 2010). due to social, cultural or religious barriers. When sufficient- Robust information on the values, prevention needs and ly contextualised, regular and comparable behavioural sur- behaviours of stigmatised minority groups is difficult to veillance can help to improve our understanding of trends in gather. Defining groups like ‘men who have sex with men’ diseases and allow more precise planning and evaluation of make estimating the size of the ‘true’ population difficult prevention responses (Brown 2003;Garnettetal.2006; and the absence of sampling frames mean random sampling McGarrigle et al. 2006). is challenging, if not impossible. Therefore, most studies of To date, there has been little collaboration across EU MSM have relied on convenience samples recruited in com- countries in data collected from MSM. Comparability is munity venues (saunas, events, bars) or clinical services hampered by partial lack of data, different questions and (STI or HIV clinics). In recent years, the Internet has been response sets, different recruitment methods and different an important setting for recruiting larger samples of MSM biological surveillance and health care systems. Moreover, that are more diverse in terms of age, education, bisexuality different ways of accessing and defining MSM lead to and geographic distribution than paper surveys recruited different sample compositions, and different questions through gay community settings (Ross et al. 2000; Whittier targeting the same concept may result in answers that are et al. 2004; Elford et al. 2004). In countries with widespread not comparable. Internet access, Internet-recruited MSM samples have been EMIS is a multi-language, pan-European, cross- shown to approximate the regional distribution of MSM sectional, HIV prevention needs assessment for MSM, in- (Marcus et al. 2009a, b). cluding both measures of risk behaviours and of unmet HIV The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control prevention needs. The survey questions were designed to (ECDC) has an objective to strengthen the capacity of allow maximum comparisons with past and future national European Union (EU) countries to prevent and control in- and regional surveys, and to allow the construction of in- fectious diseases, with HIV and other sexually transmitted dicators of national HIV responses suggested by UNAIDS infections (STIs) among the priority diseases. Monitoring (UNAIDS: Monitoring the Declaration of Commitment on the various European HIV and STI epidemics is vital to the HIV/AIDS: Guidelines on Construction of Core Indicators, corresponding public health responses. Since 2008, the Geneva 2009) and ECDC (European Centre for Disease ECDC and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office Prevention and Control. Mapping of HIV/STI Behavioural for Europe have jointly been carrying out HIV/AIDS sur- Surveillance in Europe. Stockholm 2009) EMIS sought to veillance in Europe (European Centre for Disease Prevention advance the harmonisation of survey methods and questions and Control. Mapping of HIV/STI Behavioural Surveillance and to generate comparable data between countries. It pro- in Europe. Stockholm 2009). ECDC is mandated to strengthen vides data for the planning of interventions and to facilitate and coordinate second-generation surveillance which includes the monitoring of changes over time in HIV-related behav- behavioural as well as biological measures. EMIS (European iours, needs and interventions among MSM. If repeated, MSM Internet Survey, see www.emis-project.eu)moves it can serve as the first wave of a pan-European,