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.
Chen
Yea-Hung
YH
HIV Epidemiology Section, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA 94102-6033, USA.
Raymond
H Fisher
HF
McFarland
Willi
W
Truong
Hong-Ha M
HM
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