Dating application used by gays to get a sexual partner poses a higher risk of getting sexually transmitted infections than a meeting in a bar or a club, says a new research paper.
Previous studies suggested that gays who meet online are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and are likely to have more partners than gays who pair by other means. Phone applications such as Grindr, Scruff, and Recon have gained popularity as a way of hooking one up with a potential partner. The apps allow users to use GPS to locate other users within their locality.
One of the first such apps, Grindr, says that in 2012 alone it registered 2.5 million new users by 2013 six million people spread across 192 countries were using the app.
The researchers aimed to find out whether the use of such apps has changed infection risks. The team gathered data on gay and bi-curious men who were HIV negative between 2011 and 2013. The team tested a more than 7,000 men for sexually transmitted infections. The men were also requested to provide information about the social networking methods they used to get partners and their drug use.
34 percent of the men met their partners in person, 30 percent combined both online dating and person to person methods while the rest, 36 percent, relied on Smartphone apps or the apps combined with other methods.
Well educated men below the age of 40 were the majority users of phone apps. The team found that app users were also likely to use drugs such as cocaine.
Men who used apps were 23 percent and 35 percent more likely to get gonorrhea and chlamydia respectively. The method of finding a sexual partner did not have an effect on the risk of being infected with syphilis or HIV.
The researchers argue that the use of apps enables one to meet a partner quickly and increases the chances of 'anonymous riskier encounters'
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