Participant Information
In this document, if there are some statements that you do not understand, please contact the principal investigator or recruitment representatives to give you explanations until they are well understood. In the future, this document is available on the VIBES website https://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/muhbs/cohort-study/.
Title of Research Project: VIBES: investigating impacts of and behaviours associated with sexualised drug use among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Thailand.
Ethics ID
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University Ethics ID: TMEC 26-011
UCL Ethics ID: 24583/001
Names of Researchers:
Dr. Thomas Guadamuz, Associate Professor at Mahidol University
Dr. Charles Witzel, Principal Research Fellow at University College London
Workplace address: 420/6 Ratchawithi Road, Ratchathewi Bangkok 10400. Thailand.
Tel: 082 643 5290, 086 084 4154
E-mails: Thomas Gudadamuz: thomas.gua@mahidol.edu, Charles Witzel: c.witzel@ucl.ac.uk
Research objective
This research aims to understand patterns of sex combined with drugs between men and what impacts they have on men. We want to understand patterns and changes of the sex combined with drugs over time. We will also want to understand their impacts–including on physical, mental, and sexual health, and experiences of social and legal problems–and support services that suit the communities.
Why you are asked to participate
You are invited to participate in this research project because you are a man (either cis or transgender) have experience of having sex with drugs with another man (either cis or transgender) in the last 12 months, are aged 16 or older, and live in Thailand more than 3 months in one year. There will be about 1,000 participants, and the research will last for 12 months (from April 2026 to March 2027).
How you would participate
If you decide to participate in the research project, you will complete a survey on sexual activity, drug use, mental health, wellbeing, sexual health, and support services. It will ask first about your sex assigned at birth, your sexuality, your educational level, which country you were born in, questions about your sexual health and which drugs you have used.
Then, it will proceed with questions about what kind of sexual activities you participate in, how often you participate, and violence during sex. We will also explore impacts on well-being of GBMSM who have sex with drugs, including mental health, sexual health, and experiences of social and legal problems. The questions on sexual health will include HIV, STI, and Hepatitis C testing/status. We will also ask about what support services you might value.
The survey will be online, will take around 15-25 minutes to complete and is available in Thai and in English. You can choose which language you would like to participate in. The answers will be recorded, made anonymous within the survey software named Alchemer and University College London Data Safe Haven, and accessible only to researchers working on this study.
When you complete the survey, you can choose to volunteer follow-up surveys in 6 months from now and again in 12 months. The follow-up surveys will also be done online, delivered to you via email or instant messaging, and take around 10 minutes to complete. They will also be available in Thai and English, and the answers will be recorded within the Alchemer software and University College London Data Safe Haven.
Benefits of participation
You may benefit from reflecting your situations of sex with drugs combined, especially your well-being and problems you are currently facing. At the end of the survey, you will also receive lists of support services that may be helpful.
We will use the study findings to help develop new ways of supporting men who have hi-fun and other types of sex with drugs. This may help reduce harms to individuals and communities by developing new understandings of how services can meet the needs of men who have sex with drugs. This will also benefit Thailand by improving support for LGBTQ health in the country, while also reducing overall health and well-being harms.
Risks of participation
Participating in the study means that you may share sensitive information that could be emotionally difficult. Some questions may create uneasiness or discomfort. You can stop the survey at any time. As this research project explores sex and drugs, participating may indicate that you have engaged in an activity which is illegal under Thai law. You may therefore wish not to disclose that you have participated in this research to others.
Handling of private information
The answer will be recorded within the survey software called Alchemer. Alchemer will not be allowed to share any of your personal information with anyone except for the researchers. All data from the surveys will be held securely in Alchemer software then uploaded to the University College London Data Safe Haven. This is a secure data storage system which means study data is only accessible to researchers working on this study. If you sign up for additional surveys or other research as part of VIBES, all contact information will be kept separately in the Data Safe haven and only accessible to the study lead Dr Charles Witzel. This Data Safe haven is located in the UK. The legal reason for processing your personal data will be for ‘public task’ and ‘research purposes’ under the UK general data protection regulation (GDPR). The personal data will be processed so long as it is required for the research project. We will anonymise the personal data you provide and minimise the processing of personal data wherever possible.
To make sure that each person only completes the survey once, Alchemer will place a cookie on the device used to sign up. This cookie indicates that a browser has accessed the survey. The cookie includes no personal information, does not show that the survey was completed and does not contain any survey responses. The cookie lasts for 90 days, but can be removed at any time by clearing browser cookies.
Any private information that would make it possible to identify you will be kept confidential and will never be included in any sort of report. Only the researcher team will analyse the information, and information about you will be treated so that unauthorized persons cannot access them.
Compensation for participation
When completing each survey, you will be compensated with a pair of underwear with a VIBES study logo. The underwear in each survey–at first, 6-, and 12-month follow-up surveys–will be of different styles. No expenses by you as a participant are required.
You will receive the underwear according to where you sign up for the survey. If you do the survey at the clinics or the community organisations, you will receive the underwear directly from the organisation staff. If you sign up via social media, you can choose to receive either via shipment to your provided address in the survey, or at Kerry Express self-collection locker in your area.
Participating and withdrawing
You are free to decide whether to participate or not. As a participant, you have the right to withdraw from the project during the survey without prior notice, and the refusal to participate or the withdrawal from the research project will not affect any service or treatment.
If you stop completing the survey before you finish it, your responses will not be saved.
If you initially volunteer for the follow-up surveys but wish to stop participating after the first survey or a follow-up survey, you are also able to do so by contacting the study team at vibes@ucl.ac.uk.
If you have volunteered for follow-up surveys and wish to withdraw your data, you can do so for up to three weeks following survey completion by providing the study team at vibes@ucl.ac.uk with the email address you signed up with.
If you participated only in the first survey and did not volunteer for follow-up it will not be possible to remove your response after you have completed the first survey as they will be completely anonymous and we will be unable to identify them.
Discomfort and other issues
If you experience uneasiness or discomfort due to participating in the research project, the researcher is happy to answer all of your questions or concerns. If you have comments, questions or complaints about this research, please feel free to call Charles Witzel at 082-643-5290 (English) and Thomas Guadamuz at 092-295-3515 (Thai).
On the condition that you are not treated as indicated in this information sheet, you can contact the Chair of the Ethics Committee at the Ethics Committee, Office of Research Services, 4th Floor, The 60th Anniversary of His Majesty the King's Accession to the Throne Building, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Ratchawithi Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400. Tel 02-306-9126. You may also contact the Chair of the University College London Research Ethics committee at ethics@ucl.ac.uk.
Who is running the study?
This research is a collaboration between Mahidol University, University College London and other community organisations in Thailand, including IHRI, APCOM, HON, and ACTTEAM. It has been funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a larger project understanding how men combine sex and drugs and what support they might need.
How can I hear about study findings?
If you would like to sign-up to receive study updates, you can do so at the end of the survey. We will send these out using a programme called Mailerlite. If you provide it, your email will be uploaded into Mailerlite and we will send occasion updates about the research. We will also post updates about the study on our website https://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/muhbs/cohort-study/.
Further support
If you require support on any of the issues in this survey, you can find out more about services that can help on the VIBES support page https://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/muhbs/cohort-study/. This will also be shown at the end of the survey.
Sincerely,
Dr. Charles Witzel and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thomas Guadamuz.
Faculty of Tropical Medicine