Bloom SS, Singh KK, Suchindran CM; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. WePeD6300.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States

Background: In India, most HIV+ women in antenatal clinics are infected by husbands, but little is understood about men's extramarital sex there. Close couple communication, a proxy for women's empowerment, positively influences outcomes such as contraceptive use in India. We investigate the impact of spousal communication on the risk extramarital sex among husbands. Methods: A probability survey of 3,348 married couples was conducted in 2003 in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Information on spousal communication was collected from men and women. Logistic regression was used to investigate the relationship between the frequency of spousal communication and the likelihood that husbands had extramarital sex in the past year. Results: There was a negative relationship between frequency of spousal communication and extramarital sex. Among men reporting less and frequent communication with wives, 11.9% and 4.1% also reported extramarital sex, respectively. For women's reports of communication, the numbers were 8.0% and 4.7%, respectively. In multivariate analyses age, education, alcohol use and men's mobility demonstrated significant associations with the likelihood of having extramarital sex. After controlling for these factors as well as economic status and urban residence, the frequency of spousal communication had a negative, significant association with the likelihood of extramarital sex: men reporting less communication with wives had an odds of having extramarital sex over two times higher (OR=2.19, 95%CI=1.44-3.30) than those with frequent communication. A similar relationship was detected in a model using women's reports: the likelihood of husbands having extramarital sex was higher when there was less communication (OR=1.61, 95%CI=1.08-2.39). Conclusion North Indian women in more empowered marital relationships, measured by frequency of couple communication, appear to be at lower risk of exposure to HIV through husbands' extramarital sexual activity.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Communication
• Data Collection
• Female
• HIV Infections
• Humans
• India
• Logistic Models
• Male
• Marriage
• Sexual Behavior
• Spouses

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0040002

UI: 102284218

From Meeting Abstracts