HIV risk behaviors in heterosexual partnerships: female knowledge and male behavior.
We initiated a study of high-risk heterosexual females and their male partners. The goal was to characterize the partnerships, quantify the prevalence of high-risk male behaviors and characteristics, and to assess whether females in these partnerships would be able to accurately and consistently describe their partners' risk conditions. Seventy-four percent (73.6%) of partnerships reported frequent unprotected sex (condom use during fewer than half their sexual encounters) and 55.9% reported frequent drug or alcohol use during sex (drug or alcohol use during more than half their sexual encounters). Two-thirds (66.7%) of men reported concurrent sexual partnerships and 40.8% reported a history of STDs. The women's assessments of their partners' behaviors often differed from the behaviors and characteristics reported by the women's male partners.
HIV Epidemiology Section, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA 94102-6033, USA.
Yea-Hung
YH
Chen
H Fisher
HF
Raymond
Willi
W
McFarland
Hong-Ha M
HM
Truong
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001364:Awareness; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D020010:Heterosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D055815:Young Adult