{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T20:25:45Z","timestamp":1778617545308,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]],"date-time":"2024-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1719792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100018270","name":"Health Service Executive","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100018270","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In the Republic of Ireland, the COVID-19 crisis led to sexual health service closures while clinical staff were redeployed to the pandemic response. Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) face pre-existing sexual health inequalities which may have been exacerbated. The aim of this study is to understand sexual health service accessibility for gbMSM in Ireland during the COVID-19 crisis.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>EMERGE recruited 980 gbMSM in Ireland (June-July 2021) to an anonymous online survey investigating well-being and service access through geo-location sexual networking apps (Grindr\/Growlr), social media (Facebook\/Instagram\/Twitter) and collaborators. We fit multiple regression models reporting odds ratios (ORs) to understand how demographic and behavioural characteristics (age, sexual orientation, HIV testing history\/status, region of residence, region of birth and education) were associated with ability to access services.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Of the respondents, 410 gbMSM accessed sexual health services with some or no difficulty and 176 attempted but were unable to access services during the COVID-19 crisis. A further 382 gbMSM did not attempt to access services and were excluded from this sample and analysis.<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>Baseline: mean age 35.4 years, 88% gay, 83% previously tested for HIV, 69% Dublin-based, 71% born in Ireland and 74% with high level of education.<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>In multiple regression, gbMSM aged 56+ years (aOR = 0.38, 95%CI:0.16, 0.88), not previously tested for HIV (aOR = 0.46, 95%CI:0.23, 0.93) and with medium and low education (aOR = 0.55 95%CI:0.35, 0.85) had lowest odds of successfully accessing services.<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>GbMSM with HIV were most likely to be able to access services successfully (aOR = 2.68 95%CI:1.83, 6.08).<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>Most disrupted services were: STI testing, HIV testing and PrEP.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Service access difficulties were found to largely map onto pre-existing sexual health inequalities for gbMSM. Future service development efforts should prioritise (re)engaging older gbMSM, those who have not previously tested for HIV and those without high levels of education.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0306280","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]],"date-time":"2024-07-01T17:27:25Z","timestamp":1719854845000},"page":"e0306280","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Understanding sexual health service access for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Ireland during the COVID-19 crisis: Findings from the EMERGE survey"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-6364-910X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Adam","family":"Shanley","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kate","family":"O\u2019Donnell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4950-6163","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Peter","family":"Weatherburn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"John","family":"Gilmore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4262-261X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"T. 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