We approached individual sexual health clinics in the 15 towns and cities for assistance in recruiting ethnic minority MSM (see the section on “Sexual health clinic staff - online survey” for further details on how we identified the clinics). In October 2007, we sent the participating sexual health clinics posters, postcards and creditcard-size cards advertising the MESH project. We asked the clinics to promote the project among ethnic minority MSM using their services over the next five months (that is, between October 2007 and February 2008). They were asked to display the posters and leave postcards in the waiting areas, and to tell ethnic minority MSM about the project if the opportunity arose during a clinic consultation. The posters and postcards provided the URL address of the MESH project homepage http://www. meshproject.org.uk where men could get information about the study and access the online questionnaire. Men whoagreedtocompletethequestionnairethendidso after providing informed consent - all online.
Forty clinics (22 in London,18 outside London) agreed Forty clinics (22 in London,18 outside London) agreed to recruit ethnic minority MSM for the study (see Additional file 1 for list of participating clinics). We sought Research and Development (R&D) approval from each of the local NHS Trusts for their clinic(s) to participate in the project. Approval was obtained for 38 of the 40 clinics (London, 20; outside London 18).