A US study of 862 randomly selected gay and bisexual men who were enrolled in a community festival has found that almost one in seven had been victims of childhood sexual abuse and childhood sexual abuse was associated with alarmingly high rates of men who were HIV infected and antecedent risk behaviours.

According to the study published in American Journal of Public Health under "First Look," those who reported regular childhood sexual abuse were at significantly greater risk for being HIV positive, were seven times more likely to have ever exchanged sex for money and were 6.4 times more likely to be a current drug user than those who did not report abuse.

However, the victims of childhood sexual abuse were not more likely to have a current sexually transmitted infection or to report practising unprotected sex.

Researchers at the Boston College, University of Minnesota, University of Texas School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health recommend further research to help determine how childhood sexual abuse contributes to sexual risk taking in homosexual and bisexual men and the types of interventions that may be most effective.

"We also believe that data such as ours reflect the importance of [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] voices in policy development and advocacy to address child sexual abuse," they said.