2003/01/01 by Dennis J. Haubrich, Ted Myers, Liviana Calzavara +3 · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Art #Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Demography #Family medicine #Galician and Iberian cultural studies #Gender studies #Geography #Gerontology #HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk #HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions #Homosexuality #Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) #Humanities #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books #Medicine #Men who have sex with men #Psychology #Psychosocial #Sociology #Syphilis
paper · doi:10.1080/13691050310001607241
published in Primer acto: Cuadernos de investigación teatral 6(299), 10-12 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
The aim of this study was to describe gay and bisexual men's experiences of bathhouses and their perceptions of HIV risk associated with sex in this context. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of gay and bisexual men-14 HIV-positive and 9 HIV-negative-who reported ever frequenting a bathhouse. The sample was selected from the Polaris HIV Seroconversion Study, a longitudinal open cohort study of documented recent seroconverters and HIV-negative controls in Ontario, Canada. Interview transcripts were analysed using a narrative approach. Four major themes were identified concerning views of gay bathhouse culture and environments; moral conceptions of self and others at a bathhouse; identity management at a bathhouse; and psychosocial functions of gay bathhouses. HIV transmission is a salient component of bathhouse culture; therefore, bathhouses are critical environments for the promotion of safer sex activities among gay and bisexual men.