About Engage

Engage is a collaboration between researchers and community organizations focused on improving the sexual health of gay, bi, and queer, and other trans and cisgender men who have sex with men (GBM) in Canada. Our team is actively recruiting seed participants in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Our team is actively recruiting seed participants in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver for a new cross-sectional study focused on the use of doxycycline to prevent syphilis and chlamydia (Doxy for prevention) known as “Engage 2.0.” To learn more about how to participate in each of these cities, please visit the links below for each recruitment site. These new studies will help update our understanding of the sexual health and well-being of GBM in Canada and will provide important and new information to support better prevention programs and services.

What is Engage 2.0?

• Engage 2.0 is a biobehavioural surveillance study focused on the sexual health sexual health of gay, bi, and queer, and other trans and cisgender men who have sex with men (GBM) in Canada. The study is open to guys who are HIV-negative and who are living with HIV. Engage 2.0 will build on findings from the Engage Cohort Study, which took place in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver from 2017-2023.
• We are recruiting participants in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver
• Engage 2.0 uses a recruitment approach called respondent driven sampling, where participants are invited to join the studies through a coupon from someone who already participated. Guys who join will be asked to complete a questionnaire and get tested for HIV and bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at a local testing site.
• Engage 2.0 will focus on tracking important health trends, like rates of STIs and how prevention tools like HIV PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) are being used. It will also take a closer look at doxycycline, or “doxy,” which is being used as a new way to help prevent bacterial STIs like chlamydia and syphilis. As interest in this method grows in Canada, Engage 2.0 will help provide evidence of uptake and how well it works.

Recap of the Engage Cohort Study
The Engage Cohort Study (ECS), which contributed to a portrait of the sexual health and well-being of GBM in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal ran from 2017 to 2023. ECS measured trends in and determinants of: the use of antiretroviral (ARV)-based HIV prevention, psychosocial-behavioural factors (e.g., experiences of discrimination, substance use, access to prevention and care services, etc.), condom-use, and the occurrence of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV.

Thank you to all who participated in the Engage Cohort Study. Our team will continue to work with the data we’ve collected for future publications and presentations. We encourage you to follow the work of Engage by visiting this webpage, where you can find information on new publications and presentations of study results, news items, infographics, technical summaries, and our participation in some upcoming community events! You can also subscribe to our newsletter for updates as our work continues.

Funding
Engage is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT 186252)