Sex without disclosure of positive HIV serostatus in a US probability sample of persons receiving medical care for HIV infection.
OBJECTIVE
We estimated the proportion of HIV-positive adults who have any sexual contact without disclosure and the proportion of their sexual partnerships that involve unprotected sex without disclosure.


METHODS
We drew participants from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (n = 1421). Interviews assessed disclosure and sexual activities with up to 5 recent partners.


RESULTS
Overall, 42% of the gay or bisexual men, 19% of the heterosexual men, and 17% of all the women reported any sex without disclosure, predominately within nonexclusive partnerships (P <.001). Across all groups, 13% of serodiscordant partnerships involved unprotected anal or vaginal sex without disclosure, with no significant difference between groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Risky sex without disclosure of serostatus is not uncommon among people with HIV.
Ciccarone
Daniel H
DH
Urban Health Study, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, 94110, USA. ciccaron@fcm.ucsf.edu
Kanouse
David E
DE
Collins
Rebecca L
RL
Miu
Angela
A
Chen
James L
JL
Morton
Sally C
SC
Stall
Ron
R
D000328:Adult; D035841:Behavioral Research; D016358:Contact Tracing; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy / Q000635:transmission; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D012309:Risk-Taking; D021841:Safe Sex / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D019529:Sexuality / Q000145:classification*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States