INTEREST AMONG GAY BISEXUAL MEN IN GREATER BOSTON IN PARTICIPATING INCLINICAL-TRIALS OF PREVENTIVE HIV VACCINES/

To estimate interest in HIV preventive vaccine trials, we administered questionnaries to two otherwise demographically similar cohorts of ol der (mean 40 years) and younger (mean 23 years) gay men in Boston. Que stionnaire responses were linked to concurrent behavioral and demograp hic data. Univariate analyses, performed separately for older and youn ger cohorts, identified factors that distinguished participants who we re ''very interested'' from those who were ''not at all interested.'' Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to adjust for conf ounding. Among all 630 participants, 215 (34%) were ''not at all'' int erested in participating, 306 (49%) were ''some-what'' interested, and 102 (16%) were ''very interested. Older men were significantly more l ikely than younger men to be ''very'' interested and less likely to be ''not at all interested.'' Among both older and younger men, perceive d peer willingness to enroll in vaccine trials predicted interest afte r adjusting for confounding. Among older men, optimism about success i n vaccine development also predicted interest. In the younger cohort, men recruited in community settings (e.g, bars. nightclubs) were more interested in vaccine trial participation than were those recruited by outreach workers and word of mouth on college campuses. Vaccine-induc ed seroconversion evoked significant concern.