19/08/10

Gay men are being encouraged to help ACON build the health and wellbeing of our community by taking part in an important bi-annual survey.

The Sydney Gay Community Periodic Survey is designed to improve understanding of gay health issues by gathering data on sexual behaviour, sexual health, drug use and community engagement.

The Periodic Survey occurs twice a year and is conducted by the National Centre in HIV Social Research and the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research in collaboration with ACON and Positive Life NSW.

The study forms a vital part of NSW's HIV response, enabling ACON and other organisations to measure the level of risk behaviour in the community every six months.

The survey will commence on Friday August 20 and will continue through to Sunday August 29. Recruiters will be visiting close to 20 GLBT-friendly venues throughout Sydney including pubs, clubs, gyms and retail outlets.

ACON's CEO, Nic Parkhill says about 3500 surveys are completed each year.

"These surveys give us a very useful picture of how gay men in our community are living their lives."

"This is important for an organisation like ACON so we can be aware of any social, sexual or drug use trends that are developing which then allows us to respond with appropriate health promotion messages.

Our recruiters also generally visit the same venues during each survey period so we get a similar groups of people participating each time. This helps us to track behavioural trends more effectively.

So if you get approached by one of our recruiters, please take part in the survey. It only takes 10 minutes, is completely confidential and will help us keep our community as healthy as possible."

For more info check out the ACON website: www.acon.org.au