Abstract: Objective: To investigate the status of the same sex partners in the past 6 months of man who have sex with men(MSM) in Shenzhen and explore the correlation with gay applications (gay apps) usage. Methods: From August 2016 to June 2017, snowball sampling and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) were used to recruit 315 MSM in Shenzhen and questionnaire-based interviews were conducted to collect their socio-demographic information, quantity of same sex partners in the past 6 months and usages of gay apps. Difference between groups of sexual partners and correlation with gay apps usage were analyzed by Chi-square test and Ordinal Logistic Regression analysis. Results: Totally 291 participants were enrolled in the survey, median partner in the past 6 months was 2 (inter-quartile from 1.00 to 5.00). Among the participants “0～1 partners group” was accounted for 28.2%, “2～4 partners group” was 46.7% and “≥5 partners group” was 25.1%. The Ordinal Logistic Regression indicated that, MSM who sought sex by gay apps together with other venue (aOR=1.14,95% CI：1.05～1.86), gained one-night stand by gay apps (aOR=2.00,95% CI：1.46～2.73) and used gay apps to seek sex 2 times per month or above (aOR=2.70,95% CI：1.77～4.12) were more likely to have more sexual partners in the past 6 months. Conclusion: Multiple sexual partners of MSM in the past six months are related to the usage habits of gay apps.

Key words: men who have sex with men, multiple sexual partners, gay applications