However, our analysis did not identify an association between the rate of ever testing for HIV and the age of the investigated MSM cohorts (r = 0.0264, P = 0.9119). In contrast, younger MSM were tested more frequently for HIV than older MSM in the past 12 months. Older MSM cohorts (with a mean age of 30 years) had a testing rate of 29.7%, lower than the testing rate of 43.9% found in younger cohorts (with a mean age of 25 years). However, the mean age of the cohort and the testing rate in the past 12 months were not significantly

correlated (r = –0.3824, P = 0.1173). The percentages of MSM who reported being tested for HIV in the past 12 months and ever being tested for HIV have increased significantly since 2002. Despite the increase, the Trametinib concentration testing rate in the past 12 months (43.7%; 95% CI 37.1–50.2% in 2009) is still far below that reported in many developed countries with stabilized HIV epidemics among MSM (56% in Norway, 60–70% in Australia and 89% in the USA in 2009 [36-38]). This may be attributable to a number of factors. In addition to insufficient campaigns promoting HIV testing

among MSM, a lack of awareness of the infection risk associated with sexual behaviours, and of the effects of HIV infection, Gefitinib mouse may contribute substantially to limited participation in HIV testing [16, 27, 39-41]. Because of the social stigma experienced by HIV-positive individuals in their local neighbourhoods in China, MSM who are willing to be tested often need to travel to other cities for testing, resulting in extra financial burden, which also leads to substantial loss to follow-up [39]. We also observed that approximately 3–18% of individuals did not

return for the HIV result. Although none of the studies investigated the reasons Fenbendazole why individuals were not notified of their HIV test results, Choi KH et al. suggested that HIV testing sites should be located in more convenient locations in order to reduce travel times, and rapid HIV testing with no necessity for a return visit is also recommended to increase the percentage of MSM tested for HIV and made aware of the test result [16]. Recent studies have shown that the HIV testing rate among Chinese MSM is strongly associated with several factors such as age, education level, history of sexually transmitted infections, sexual orientation and high-risk sexual behaviours (e.g. multiple male sexual partners and unprotected sexual intercourse) [40, 42]. Because there was limited information about the study design in the papers included in the review, we could only investigate the association between the mean age of MSM cohorts and the HIV testing rates (i.e. ever-tested and tested in the past 12 months), which did not yield a significant correlation.