RESEARCH ARTICLE Risk Factors for HIV Infection among Young Thai Men during 2005–2009

Background Thailand is one of several countries with a continuing generalized HIV epidemic. We evalu-ated the risk factors for HIV prevalence among 17–29 year old men conscripted by a ran-dom process into the Royal Thai Army (RTA) in 8 cohorts from 2005–2009. Methods A series of case-cohort studies were conducted among the male RTA conscripts who had been tested for HIV seroprevalence after they were inducted. Men who were HIV positive were compared with a systematic random sample (1 in 30–40) of men from the total popula-tion of new conscripts. Each subject completed a detailed risk factor questionnaire. Results A total of 240,039 young Thai men were conscripted into the RTA and were screened for HIV seroprevalence between November 2005 and May 2009. Of 1,208 (0.5%) HIV positive cases, 584 (48.3%) men were enrolled into the study. There were 7,396 men who were enrolled as a comparison group. Among conscripts who had an education lower than a col