Twenty-six percent of European men who have sex with men (MSM) reported engaging in unprotected sex with a casual partner in the past year, and 39 percent reported doing so with a steady partner, aidsmap reports. All told, 58 percent of European MSM reported having sex without a condom. Researchers drew their data from the European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS), an online questionnaire created in 25 languages and given across Europe in 2010. About 180,000 men participated. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention published the data in a report that was funded by the European Commission.

Over the previous year, 58 percent of respondents reported sex with a steady partner, or sometimes with more than one such partner. Sixty-seven percent reported sex with a casual partner; half of this group had five or fewer casual partners, 19 percent had between six and 10, and 30 percent reported more than 10 casual partners.

Within the group of men who reported having a steady partner, 67 percent had unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) on at least one occasion, 23 percent used condoms consistently and 10 percent refrained from anal intercourse.

As for the group who reported a casual partner or partners, 39 percent had UAI at least one time, 44 percent used condoms consistently and 17 didn’t engage in anal intercourse.

Thus, out of the total study group, 39 percent of the MSM reported UAI with a steady partner and 26 percent with a casual partner during the previous year.

To read the aidsmap story, click here.

To read the study, click here.

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