Characteristics of multiple and concurrent partnerships among women at high risk for HIV infection.
OBJECTIVE
We examined parameters of sexual partnerships, including respondents' participation in concurrency, belief that their partner had concurrent partnerships (partners' concurrency), and partnership intervals, among the 2099 women in HIV Prevention Trials Network 064, a study of women at high risk for HIV infection, in 10 U.S. communities.


METHODS
We analyzed baseline survey responses about partnership dates to determine prevalence of participants' and partners' concurrency, intervals between partnerships, knowledge of whether recent partners had undergone HIV testing, and intercourse frequency during the preceding 6 months.


RESULTS
Prevalence of participants' and partners' concurrency was 40% and 36%, respectively; 24% respondents had both concurrent partnerships and nonmonogamous partners. Among women with >1 partner and no concurrent partnerships themselves, the median gap between partners was 1 month. Multiple episodes of unprotected vaginal intercourse with ≥2 of their most recent partners was reported by 60% of women who had both concurrent partnerships and nonmonogamous partners, 50% with only concurrent partners and no partners' concurrency, and 33% with only partners' concurrency versus 14% of women with neither type of concurrency (P < 0.0001). Women who had any involvement with concurrency were also more likely than women with no concurrency involvement to report lack of awareness of whether recent partners had undergone HIV testing (participants' concurrency 41%, partners' concurrency 40%, both participants' and partners' concurrency 48%, neither 17%; P < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
These network patterns and short gaps between partnerships may create substantial opportunities for HIV transmission in this sample of women at high risk for HIV infection.
*Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina Schools of Medicine and UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; †Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; ‡Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA; §FHI 360, Durham, NC; ‖School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, DC; ¶Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; #ICAP-Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY; **Rollins School of Public Health and Center for AIDS Research, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; ††Harlem Hospital Center, New York, NY; ‡‡NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD; and §§Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ.
Adaora A
AA
Adimora
James P
JP
Hughes
Jing
J
Wang
Danielle F
DF
Haley
Carol E
CE
Golin
Manya
M
Magnus
Anne
A
Rompalo
Jessica
J
Justman
Carlos
C
del Rio
Wafaa
W
El-Sadr
Sharon
S
Mannheimer
Lydia
L
Soto-Torres
Sally L
SL
Hodder
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult