| Research Article |
Open Access |
|
| Transactional Sex and HIV Incidence in a Cohort of Young Women in the
Stepping Stones Trial |
| Rachel Jewkes1,4*, Kristin Dunkle2, Mzikazi Nduna3 and Nwabisa Jama Shai1 |
| 1Gender & Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa |
| 2Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| 3Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| 4School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| *Corresponding author: |
Rachel Jewkes, Professor
Gender & Health Research
Unit
Medical Research Council
Private Bag X385
Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Tel: 012 339 8525
Fax: 012 339 8582 E-mail: rjewkes@mrc.ac.za |
|
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| Received May 24, 2012; Accepted June 25, 2012; Published June 27, 2012 |
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| Citation: Jewkes R, Dunkle K, Nduna M, Shai NJ (2012) Transactional Sex and HIV
Incidence in a Cohort of Young Women in the Stepping Stones Trial. J AIDS Clinic
Res 3:158. doi:10.4172/2155-6113.1000158 |
| |
| Copyright: © 2012 Jewkes R, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited. |
| |
| Abstract |
| |
| Background: Structural drivers of the HIV epidemic are increasingly recognised, and cross-sectional research
has shown an association between transactional sex and HIV prevalence, but evidence on the impact of transactional
sex on HIV incidence in young women remains limited. |
| |
| Methods: We tested hypotheses that transactional sex predicted incident HIV infections in a dataset of 1077 HIV
negative women aged 15-26 enrolled in a cluster randomised controlled trial. Incidence rate ratios were derived from
multivariable Poisson models which included terms for age, HSV2, relationship power, condom use, intimate partner
violence (IPV) exposure, treatment, stratum and person years of exposure to HIV. |
| |
| Results: 127 sexually active women acquired HIV during the study. HIV incidence was greater among women
having transactional sex with a once off partner (IRR 3.29 95% CI 1.02, 10.55, p=0.046) and those having transactional
sex with an on-going, concurrent partner (IRR 2.05 95% CI 1.20, 3.52, p=0.009). An analysis was performed to
distinguish between the effects of a transactional sexual encounter or relationship and having a higher number of
sexual partners or older partners, which are usually entailed in transactional sex. Women having transactional sex
with a casual partner (on-going or once off) and two or more partners during follow up had an elevated risk of HIV
acquisition (IRR 2.23 95% CI 1.28, 3.88, p=0.005), where as those just having two or more partners did not (IRR
1.20 95% CI 0.81, 1.77, p=0.368). Women with partners 5 or more years older did not have an elevated risk of HIV. |
| |
| Conclusions: Transactional sex with an on-going or once off partner elevates young women’s risk of HIV
infection. This finding is independent of partner number or age. These findings support the need for structural
interventions in HIV prevention, with a stronger focus on reducing transactional sex. |
| |
| Introduction |
| |
| Women who engage in sex motivated by economic gain, whether
in prostitution or more informal transactional sex, are very vulnerable
to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, as well as rape
and intimate partner violence (IPV) [1-7]. The high HIV prevalence
found in women in prostitution, compared to women in the general
population has been recognised since the early days of the HIV
epidemic and pertains globally. The contribution of transactional sex to
HIV incidence amongst young women is less well described, although
there is evidence from one longitudinal study of agricultural workers
in Kenya [8]. |
| |
| Transactional sex has often not been studied and at times has
been subject to overly simple measures and somewhat arbitrary
definitions, for example conflating material gain and age difference
between partners [9-11]. There has also been some confusion among
researchers about the intersections of ‘prostitution’ or ‘sex work’ and
‘transactional sex’, as these are complex and highly contested [12-14]. Women in prostitution (or sex work) may actively soliciting sex
in a public area, brothel or embrace an identity as a ‘prostitute’ or ‘sex
worker’, but do not do so always. In transactional sex there is generally
an absence of prior negotiation of price, but price may be agreed
[14,15]. In transactional sex, a wide range of goods or services, such
as transport or accommodation, may be received in exchange for sex,
but most commonly cash is given [3,12,14]. Whilst one off acts of sex
for material gain are found, transaction may be the primary motivation
for on-going relationships with secondary partners. In South Africa
these are generally called khwapheni or nyatsi (in the Nguni or Sotho
group languages and kept secret), and it may be a primary motivation
for relationships with main partners [2,12,16]. In the latter case it can be very hard to distinguish transactional relationships from
other relationships where there is a predominant expectation of both
the man and the woman is that the man will fulfil a provider role,
especially as the roles of romantic love, habit, social expedience etc
in sustaining relationships are complex, and love may be expressed
in gifts [16]. Yet research suggests that in these relationships men
perceive an entitlement to sex because of their role as providers and
women perceive that without material benefit their relationship would
not be sustained. The potential for mismatch between perceptions of
motivation is clearly shown in South Africa where men much more
often report perceiving themselves to be in transactional relationships
than women describe their own relationships or sex was predicated on
material gain, at least in research [3,9,12]. Whilst authors assert that
transactional sex is ubiquitous in Africa [17], there is huge variability
in its actual prevalence and population-based prevalence studies of
women have not shown it to be admitted to by the majority [9]. |
| |
| As a risk factor for HIV, transactional sex overlaps with several other dimensions of risk for women. Women who have transactional
sex generally have more sexual partners than other women, and these
relationships are commonly parts of webs of concurrency, although
many secondary sexual relationships are not transactional [3,18].
Transactional relationships are stereotypically marked by substantial
age differences between partners (as in the sugar daddy), and this is
associated with a higher HIV prevalence [19,20,21], but many young
men also engage in transactional sex with similar aged women
[2,14,16]. Further sex may be transacted for alcohol in bars, in contexts
after drinking where condom use is less likely to occur [22]. Men who
engage in these relationships and acts are substantially more controlling,
patriarchal and violent than other men [2,23]. In order to understand
the contribution of the transactional nature of these relationships to
HIV risk it is important to try to disentangle the relative contributions
of these other factors where this is possible. Where this is not, we must
acknowledge that the transactional element of these relationships
may render women, and sexual networks, vulnerable through other
dimensions of risk, including impact on network level concurrency
(i.e. the density of concurrency across a network of sexually connected
individuals). |
| |
| Understanding the contribution of transactional sex to HIV
incidence, and addressing it, remains particularly important because
young women are much less able to change their own risk of HIV than
older women and men. They lack power to negotiate condoms, are not
able to individually benefit from male circumcision and evidence on
anti-retroviral prevention, after the vaginal microbicide with tenofovir
arms were dropped from the VOICE trial due to lack of evidence of
effect, is disappointing. Whilst they may be able to benefit from their
male partners testing for HIV and entering treatment programmes,
evidence suggests that men who are most socially conservative, and
even more so those who are violent and anti-social, are least likely to
test and yet are over represented in among men who have transactional
sex [24,25]. |
| |
| Programming to prevent transactional sex in a context of
considerable material poverty is challenging. Thus it is essential to
better understand the contribution of this behaviour to HIV acquisition.
The dataset from the evaluation of the HIV prevention intervention
Stepping Stones in South Africa [26] presents an opportunity to examine
empirically the hypotheses that HIV negative women who engage in
various forms of transactional sex are independently more likely to
acquire HIV during a period of prospective follow up. The dataset
contains several measures of transactional sex as well as information on
partner numbers and age difference, and HIV sero-status measured over
two years. In this paper we present a longitudinal analysis of data from
1077 young rural South African women from this trial who were HIV
negative at baseline, sexually active during the period of observation
and had subsequent HIV tests. We examine two hypotheses. The first is
that HIV negative women who have transactional sex are at increased
risk of HIV acquisition. The second is that HIV negative women who
have more 2 or more sexual partners and transactional sex have a
higher risk of HIV acquisition than women who just have two or more
partners, and higher risk than those having a partner 5 or more years
older (when having transactional sex with a casual partner has been
adjusted for). We have previously shown that intimate partner violence
exposure, relationship power inequity, and HSV2 infection all increase
HIV incidence, and condom use is protective and so adjust the models
for these exposures [27]. |
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| Methods |
| |
| Between 2002-2003 we enrolled youth aged 15-26 years into a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the HIV prevention
behavioural intervention Stepping Stones [26]. From the original 1415
enrolled women, we excluded those HIV infected at baseline (n=159),
those who were not sexually active before or during the period of
observation (n=22), those lost to follow up at both 12 .and 24 months
(n=156), and two with missing data. We present here data from 1077
women (87.8% of sexually active HIV negative women in the cohort). |
| |
| The trial had two arms. One received Stepping Stones, a 50 hour
participatory intervention on sexual and reproductive health and
HIV, delivered over 6-8 weeks. The control intervention was 3 hours
on safer sex and HIV, delivered on one occasion. In all other respects
the participants in the two arms were treated no differently. They
were volunteers recruited from schools in 70 locations (clusters) in
the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The clusters were divided
into seven geographically-defined strata and equal numbers of clusters
in each strata were randomised between the two study arms. In each
cluster, 15-25 youth of each sex were enrolled. Baseline, 12 and 24
month assessments included a face-to-face questionnaire and HIV and
HSV2 blood tests. The cohort was maintained using details collected at
enrolment, with follow-up conducted nationwide as necessary to trace
youth who had moved. Further information on all assessments, study
recruitment, access and ethical issues, including support for participants
testing HIV positive, is presented elsewhere [26,28]. Ethical approval
for the study was given by the University of Pretoria. All participants
signed informed consent. All were offered their HIV test results and
offered psychological support from a study nurse. |
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| Measures |
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| Biological |
| |
| HIV serostatus at baseline was assessed with two rapid tests [29].
The Determine (Abbott Diagnostics, Johannesburg) test was used
for screening and specimens testing positive were retested with UnigoldTM
(Trinity Biotech, Dublin, Ireland). Indeterminate results were
clarified using an HIV-1 screen ELISA (Genscreen) followed by two
confirmatory ELISAs (Vironostika and Murex 1.2.0 if HIV positive).
Towards the end of the second round of interviews collection of blood
as dried spots was introduced for some participants to ease logistics
and improve acceptability. In the third round of interviews most
blood was thus collected. The specimens were tested with a screen and
confirmatory ELISA (as above). In this analysis 746 (67.8%) of the final
HIV outcomes were from dried blood spots, equally distributed among
participants remaining HIV negative and sero-converting (67.8% v.
68.5% respectively). |
| |
| A Glycoprotein G-based herpes simplex virus type 2 ELISA
was used to test for herpes infection, Kalon (Kalon Biological Ltd.,
Aldershot, United Kingdom). A CAPTIA Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)
IgG Type Specific ELISA was used to resolve discrepant results. |
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| Measuring transactional sex |
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| Transactional sex was defined as occurring where a woman said that
she had a sexual relationship (or act) motivated by his providing her (or
her expectation that he would provide her) with food, cosmetics, clothes,
transportation, items for children or family, school fees, somewhere to
sleep, alcohol or a “fun night out”, or cash [2]. A woman was said to
have ever had transactional sex if she had ever had sex motivated by
expectations of receiving one of the listed items, whether or not it was
received (following Dunkle et al, 2004 [3]). The questions were asked
separately for transactional sex with a main partner, a khwapheni and
a once off sexual partner. We present measures of each in this paper, as well as one of transactional sex with a casual partner, where that is
defined as either a khwapheni or once off. |
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| Other variables |
| |
| We measured age and completed years of schooling. Socioeconomic
status was assessed using a scale derived for the study
encompassing household goods ownership, food scarcity and perceived
difficulty accessing money for a medical emergency (R100, about $12).
Each time they were interviewed we asked if they had a boyfriend,
sex or been pregnant and measured duration of sexual activity from
time since first sex. We asked about condom use during the last sexual
encounter and whether problems had occurred (slipping off, put on
later, breakage). |
| |
| To measure partner numbers and types we asked separately about
the number of main partners, of khwapheni and once-off partners.
Khwapheni is a term in local idiom describing partners that are
definitionally concurrent (and usually secret) for one or both of the
partners involved. Number of partners was inquired for each category
in the last year and lifetime. It was not possible to derive a continuous
variable for partner numbers during follow up as we could not know
whether those reported at 12 and 24 months were the same people.
Thus the measure was dichotomised at 0 or 1 versus 2 or more sexual
partners after examining the distribution and its relationship with
HIV new infections. The age of the main partner was asked, and age
difference calculated. A variable measuring whether the main partner
at the 12 or 24 month interview was five or more years older during
follow up was derived. |
| |
| A sexual relationship power scale (10-items, Cronbach’s alpha=0.73),
previously shown to be associated with incident HIV among in South
African women, was used to measure gender power equity [27,30].
Each item was assessed on a 4 point Likert scale and the measure was
scored and categorised into tertiles of the measure. For the analysis the
tertile with lowest equity was compared to the middle and higher ones. |
| |
| The WHO violence against women instrument was used to measure
physical partner violence (5-items) and sexual partner violence (4
items) over the past year or ever [31] . We coded physical or sexual
violence into more than one episode versus none or only one, as this
has been shown to be associated with incident HIV [27]. |
| |
| We derived variables for possible time-varying covariates during
follow up. In each case we considered behaviour reported at either the
12 months interview (i.e. between baseline and 12 months) or at the 24
month interview (if she did not sero-convert at 12 months). |
| |
| We hypothesised that transactional sex might be often with
relatively older partners and also that women having transactional sex
may have more partners. The former has been taken into account in
the data analysis, but in order to take the latter into account we derived
a three level variable to combine exposure to transactional sex with a
casual partner (one off or on-going) and having two or more partners
(c.f. Dunkle et al 2004 [32]). The reference category had less than two
partners during follow up (or before HIV positivity). The first category
had two or more partners but reported no transactional sex, and the
second category had two or more partners and transactional sex with
a casual partner. |
| |
| Data analysis |
| |
| Analyses were carried out using Stata 12.0 and draws on 1077
women who were HIV negative at baseline, had HSV2 results at
baseline and were sexually active at baseline or became sexually active during the two years of follow up. All procedures took into account
the study design, viewing the dataset as a cohort with a stratified, two
stage structures with participants clustered within villages. There were
127 HIV seroconversions in 2036 person years of follow up, with an
HIV incidence of 6.2 per 100 person years. For each participant we
calculated the person years of exposure as the time from baseline to
the last negative result if the person remained negative, or as the total
time between any negative tests as well as half the time between the last
negative and first positive test. |
| |
| The social, demographic and relationship characteristics, HSV 2
prevalence and violence exposures were summarised as percentages
(or means) with 95% confidence limits, using standard methods for
estimating confidence intervals from complex multistage sample
surveys (Taylor linearization). Pearson’s chi was used to test associations
between categorical variables. |
| |
| To account for clustering of women within villages, random effects
(multilevel) models were fitted. Random effects Poisson models were
built to test the hypothesis that measures of transactional sex predicted
HIV incident infections. Each model included variables for established
HIV risk factors i.e. age, the study treatment arm, stratum, baseline
HSV2 status, relationship power and exposure to more than one episode
of physical or sexual partner violence, correct condom use at last sex
before the final HIV test or diagnosis and person years of exposure.
We present incident rate ratios from Poisson models that included the
different transactional sex and sexual behaviour variables. We also tested
the models for the possibility of confounding or effect modification by
education, SES, pregnancy, and duration of sexual activity, but found no
substantial confounding or effect modification. We tested for interactions
between all variables in the model and found none. We tested whether
findings were depended on the partner number cut point, and whether
they were different if number of partners at 12 months was used as a
continuous variable and found they did not differ. We tested goodness
of fit using the Poisson goodness of fit test. We confirmed the findings
of associations for models with each sexual behaviour variable, by
modelling survival time under observation using a Weibull model, with
the same set of adjustment variables (findings not shown). |
| |
| In order to test the second hypothesis we repeated the above
procedure with a model with the three level variable transactional sex
and partner number variable. We also built a model, again following
the same procedure, with transactional sex with a casual partner as an
additional adjustment variable and examined having a main partner 5
or more years older as the main explanatory variable of interest. |
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| Results |
| |
| Of the original set of HIV negative women, 12.6% were lost to
follow up. These women were significantly older, more likely to have
had a boyfriend and sex at baseline than those followed up (Table 1).
They did not differ significantly from those followed up on measures of
transactional sex with a casual partner or partner numbers. The mean
age of the women retained was 18.4 years (range 15-24) at baseline.
At baseline 30 (3.7%) had never had a boyfriend, but 119 (10.8%) had
not yet had sex. The proportion interviewed at 12 months who had not
had sex was 4.2%, and 1.9% at 24 months. The latter group were then
excluded from the analysis. |
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|
Table 1: Comparison of characteristics of the sample enrolled at baseline by whether they were followed up. |
|
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| The women were mostly still in school (98.1%), unmarried and
their homes were poor (Table 2). Those who acquired HIV did not
differ in age, education, or socio-economic status from those who
did not, but there were more likely to have been pregnant (Table 2). They had experienced more partner violence, had more inequitable
relationships and were more likely to have HSV2 at baseline. Those who
sero-converted were less likely to have used a condom correctly at last
sexual intercourse before their final HIV test during follow up. |
| |
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|
Table 2: Socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics of women who did and did not acquire HIV over 2 years* |
|
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| The most common form of transactional sex was having a
transactional relationship with a main partner. The second most
common was a transactional relationship with an on-going, secret
partner (a khwapheni). The number of women who had had
transactional sex with a man as a once off event during follow up was
very small (n=7). The women who acquired HIV were more likely to have had a transactional relationship with a main partner, and a
transactional relationship with a khwapheni. They were also were more
likely to have two or more partners during follow up and a greater
proportion had a main partner 5 or more years older. |
|
| |
| The incidence of HIV and incidence rate ratio derived from the
adjusted multivariable Poisson models are shown in Table 3. Women
who had transactional sex with a once off partner and a khwapheni had
a higher HIV incidence than those who did not. There was no difference
in HIV incidence between those having a transactional relationship
with a main partner and those who did not. |
| |
|
Table 3: Incidence and relative incidence of HIV infection in a cohort of women exposed to transactional sex and other risky practices. |
|
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| Having a main partner five or more years older during follow up
was not associated with a higher HIV incidence; neither was having
two or more partners during follow up. The relationship between
partner numbers and transactional sex with a casual partner is shown
in the analysis with the three level variables. This showed that it was
only those who had had transactional sex with a casual partner had a
significantly higher HIV incidence. |
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| Discussion |
| |
| We have found that after adjusting for other HIV risk factors, young
South African women who had transactional sex with a once off partner
and those having a transactional relationship with a khwapheni had a
greater HIV incidence. After adjustment for number of partners, those
women who had transactional sex with a casual partner were still more
likely to acquire HIV. Having an older main partner and having more
partners alone did not elevate HIV incidence after adjustment for other
variables. The overall incidence in our cohort (6.2%) is very similar to
that estimated nationally among women aged 15-24 years (6.5%) [33]. |
| |
| Our findings about the importance of transactional sex support
those of cross-sectional research from diverse populations including
pregnant women in Soweto, South Africa and agricultural workers in
Kenya [8,30,32]. They provide further evidence on temporal sequence,
and evidence that the impact of transactional sex on HIV acquisition
cannot just be explained through its impact on partner numbers,
exposure to intimate partner violence nor on the age-differential.
Our findings point to a causal relationship that needs to be explicitly
addressed in HIV prevention programming. |
| |
| Transactional sex may be motivated by basic survival and
subsistence needs [10,13,34,35] but this is not always the case and
young women may also use it to bolster their self-esteem in the context of youth cultures which prioritise conspicuous consumption [10,34,36-
39]. Women in prostitution often claim to have more independence and
power, including to insist on condom use, than women in transactional
relationships [16], and in so doing they point to a particular type of
vulnerability that financial or material need introduces into sexual
relations. Where there is an absence of explicit negotiation and a
bolstered sense of male entitlement, men perceive that gifts of cash
result in a woman accepting sex on his terms, which are often without
condoms and without space to assert preferences for monogamy and so
forth [34,40-42]. |
| |
| There is a growing interest in international programming on
structural interventions to prevention HIV acquisition by young
women, in particular recently in conditional cash transfers (CCT). The
Zomba district cash transfer intervention in Malawi had early findings
of a reduction in pregnancy and early marriage and is believed to
have reduced transactional sex [43] and the conditional cash transfer
in Ifakara, Tanzania showed some impact on treatable STI infections
[44]. So far the impact on HIV incidence is lacking, furthermore the
findings suggest impact is at least dependant on the amount offered
[44]. A further difficulty is that South Africa is the only country in
Sub-Saharan Africa that has an advanced social security system that
could even potentially implement conditional payments, and here the
evidence suggests that doing so would be difficult as social grant fraud is
a problem and so maintaining a ‘conditional’ aspect to payments would
be hard. Thus the evidence of utility in real world contexts of these
types of models in reducing HIV incidence has not yet been shown.
The likely success of payment for health outcomes is predicated on a
highly individualistic and rational model of drivers of sexual risk. Much
research on sexuality in Africa suggests that this may have limitations
as it ignores the role of social norms in sexual practice and messages
of acceptability conveyed by members of a social network [13,34,45]. One indication of social norms related to transactional relationships
is seen in family practices around the provision of basic necessities (or
pocket money) to young women. Women often receive less than their
brothers, if provided for at all, and there is an assumption that they will
make up the deficit themselves [14,18]. Whilst it is valuable to further
research CCT interventions, it may be mistaken to assume that they will
provide all the answers to the problem of young women’s engagement
in transactional sex. |
| |
| Successful interventions are likely to be complex and include
addressing the gendered social norms related to transactional sex i.e.
assumptions about men and the provider role [12,16]. The Stepping
Stones participatory intervention did address transactional sex and
there was evidence of reduced transactional sex among men (as
givers of resources) one year after the intervention [26]. This suggests
that some of the demand side of transactional sex may be amenable
to intervention. More research is needed. The intervention did not
effectively impact on the supply side, indeed women in the Stepping
Stones arm reported more 12 months after the intervention than other
women, which underscores the complexity of factors impacting on the
supply side. |
| |
| Supply side interventions need to address social norms on the
acceptability of transaction, as well as meeting the material needs
that are currently filled by sexual partners [13,14]. At a certain level
supply side transactional sex is driven by economic scarcity [3], and
so long term solutions will require strengthening education systems,
keeping young women in school longer and better equipping them
for work and income generation. However the women in the Stepping
Stones study who engaged in transactional sex and had an elevated
HIV risk were in school and most women in the study were very poor.
This suggests there is scope for other forms of intervention as not all
engaged in transactional sex. It is likely that there needs to be a range
of interventions directed at young women, and their families, to change
social norms, and promote women’s independent access to resources to
meet daily needs. This includes engagement with families around the
risks of transactional sex and the potential for them to ameliorate these
through changes in norms on resource distribution (pocket money).
Further work developing and testing interventions to change social
norms and remove the economic drivers of transactional sex is urgently
needed. |
| |
| There is a recognised problem of eliminating confounding in
observational epidemiology, without over-adjusting the models [46],
particularly given the limited number of new infections. Having
tested the models extensively for confounding, interactions and effect
modification, we are confident that we have presented models that have
been appropriately constructed and fit the data well. This study has
strengths and limitations. The cohort was comprised of volunteers and
although retention was high, there was some loss to follow up. Those
lost were older, but it is impossible to know whether this would have
influenced the findings. The data were self-reported and may have been
vulnerable to reporting bias, but this is unlikely to have been differential
between HIV acquisition groups. We acknowledge that the measure of
partner numbers should ideally have been continuous but it was not
possible to derive this from the available data, further the measure of
partner age did not take into account the age of casual partners. It is
likely that the number of sexual encounters with a main partner would
be greater than those of casual and so these partners are likely to be
more important in HIV exposure. The cut point of two or more partners
versus fewer did reflect the data in that both transactional sex and HIV
new infections were significantly lower below two partners than above, and at 12 months only 7.4% of women reported having more than two
partners in the past year so the cell size also warranted collapsing of
categories. |
| |
| The follow up data was interval censored and the model included
the standard method of dealing with uncertainty about the time of
HIV sero-conversion in such data. It is impossible to know when seroconversion
did occur and so impossible to accurately estimate the
errors in such an assumption, although we can suggest no reason to
suppose these to be biased by exposure to transactional sex. This is a
recognised and unavoidable problem [47], but we tried to ensure it did
not result in spurious findings by confirming the results through two
quite different approaches to model building. HIV new infections may
have been slightly under-ascertained due to the window period and
some women only being available at 12 and not 24 months for follow
up. It is possible that using the Stepping Stones trial cohort may have
introduced biases in this analysis, but we adjusted for study treatment
arm and checked for interactions. There was no effect of treatment on
HIV incidence in women [26]. |
| |
| Conclusion |
| |
| We have shown that HIV incidence was higher among young rural
South African women who had engaged in transactional sex with a
casual partner, after adjusting for partner numbers. The finding also
suggests that having casual sex with a once off partner was a risk factor
for HIV, although in this study it was an infrequently reported practice.
These findings compliment the findings of rural research from Kenya on
HIV incidence and a broader body of cross-sectional evidence on the
importance of transactional sex. Our findings do not support assertions
that partner age difference and number of partners themselves were of
equivalent importance among women in the study. HIV prevention
interventions with young women are of considerable importance.
Young women are very vulnerable and much less able to influence their
own sexual risk than men of the same age [48]. These findings provide
support for those who are investigating interventions to enable young
women to avoid transactional sex, whether through change in social
norms or economic empowerment. Donors and researchers must invest
resources and energies in developing and testing new interventions to
reduce transactional sex as a high priority in global HIV prevention. |
| |
| Acknowledgements |
| |
| We thank all the members of the Stepping Stones study team and the National
Institute for Communicable Diseases for quality control, testing, and storage
of specimens; the staff who worked on the project, members of the community
advisory board and DSMB. Carl Lombard advised on the data analysis. |
| |
| Funding |
| |
| National Institute of Mental Health grant Nos [MH 64882-01, MH 64882-
04S1A1, 1R03MH085599] and the South African Medical Research Council. |
| |
|
| References |
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