Keep them in school: the importance of education as a protective factor against HIV infection among young South African women

Title
Keep them in school: the importance of education as a protective factor against HIV infection among young South African women
Publication Date
2008
Author(s)
Pettifor, Audrey E
Levandowski, Brooke A
MacPhail, Catherine
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0614-0157
Email: cmacphai@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:cmacphai
Padian, Nancy S
Cohen, Myron S
Rees, Helen V
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1093/ije/dyn131
UNE publication id
une:15813
Abstract
Objective: To identify risk factors for HIV infection among young women aged 15–24 years reporting one lifetime partner in South Africa. Design: In 2003, we conducted a nationally representative household survey of sexual behaviour and HIV testing among 11,904 young people aged 15-24 years in South Africa. This analysis focuses on the subset of sexually experienced young women with only one reported lifetime sex partner (n = 1708). Methods: Using the proximate determinants framework and the published literature we identified factors associated with HIV in young women. The associations between these factors and HIV infection were explored in multivariable logistic regression models. Results: Of the young women, 15% reporting one lifetime partner were HIV positive. In multivariable analyses, young women who had not completed high school were more likely to be infected with HIV compared with those that had completed high school (AOR 3.75; 95% CI 1.34–10.46). Conclusions: Young South African women in this population were at high risk of HIV infection despite reporting only having one lifetime partner. Few individual level factors were associated with HIV infection, emphasizing the importance of developing HIV prevention interventions that address structural and partner level risk factors.
Link
Citation
International Journal of Epidemiology, 37(6), p. 1266-1273
ISSN
1464-3685
0300-5771
Start page
1266
End page
1273

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