Female Partner Acceptance as a Predictor of Men's Readiness to Undergo Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Zambia: The Spear and Shield Project.
The World Health Organization has recommended the scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa; however, men are often uninterested in undergoing VMMC. The Spear & Shield project enrolled 668 men and female partners from ten Zambian community health centers into parallel interventions promoting VMMC for HIV prevention or time-matched control conditions. A mediation model was utilized to examine the relationships between changes in women's acceptance of VMMC and men's readiness to undergo the procedure. Results demonstrated that, at 12 months post-intervention, a 5.9 % increase in the likelihood of undergoing VMMC among men in the experimental condition could be attributed to increased women's acceptance. From a public health perspective, involving women in VMMC promotion interventions such as the Spear & Shield project could significantly impact the demand for VMMC in Zambia.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dominion Tower, 1400 NW 10th Ave. Suite 404A, Miami, FL, 33136, USA. rcook@med.miami.edu.
Ryan
R
Cook
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dominion Tower, 1400 NW 10th Ave. Suite 404A, Miami, FL, 33136, USA.
Deborah
D
Jones
Cancer Prevention Research Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA.
Colleen A
CA
Redding
University of Zambia Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia.
Robert
R
Zulu
University of Zambia Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia.
Ndashi
N
Chitalu
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dominion Tower, 1400 NW 10th Ave. Suite 404A, Miami, FL, 33136, USA.
Stephen M
SM
Weiss
D000328:Adult; D002944:Circumcision, Male / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012747:Sexual Partners; D015024:Zambia
Couples; Voluntary medical male circumcision; Women; Zambia