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HIV Risk Behaviours and their Relationship to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Among Men Who Have Multiple Female Sexual Partners in Cape Town, South Africa

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Abstract

HIV/AIDS and intimate partner violence (IPV) are growing public health concerns in South Africa. Knowledge about adult men’s perpetration of IPV and links between HIV risk behaviours and IPV is limited. Respondent driven sampling was used to recruit men who have multiple concurrent female sexual partners. Forty-one percent of the 428 recruited men had perpetrated IPV. Inconsistent condom use was associated with physical IPV; experiencing a symptom of a sexually transmitted infection and engaging in transactional sex were associated with physical and sexual IPV; problem alcohol use was associated with physical, and any IPV, but not sexual IPV; having five or more partners was associated with sexual IPV; perceptions of partners’ infidelity were associated with physical and any IPV. HIV risk reduction interventions among men, especially those with multiple female sex partners, should incorporate strategies to change the underlying construction of masculinity that combines the anti-social and risky behaviours of IPV perpetration, inconsistent condom use, transactional sex and heavy alcohol consumption.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Systems Research Unit, Medical Research Council, P.O. Box 19070, Tygerberg 7505, Cape Town, South Africa

    Loraine Townsend, Catherine Mathews & Yanga Zembe

  2. Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa

    Rachel Jewkes

  3. School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Catherine Mathews

  4. School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Lisa Grazina Johnston

  5. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Adolescent Health Research Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Alan J. Flisher

  6. United Nations Childrens Fund, New York, NY, USA

    Mickey Chopra

Authors
  1. Loraine Townsend
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  2. Rachel Jewkes
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  3. Catherine Mathews
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  4. Lisa Grazina Johnston
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  5. Alan J. Flisher
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  6. Yanga Zembe
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  7. Mickey Chopra
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Correspondence to Loraine Townsend.

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Townsend, L., Jewkes, R., Mathews, C. et al. HIV Risk Behaviours and their Relationship to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Among Men Who Have Multiple Female Sexual Partners in Cape Town, South Africa. AIDS Behav 15, 132–141 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-010-9680-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-010-9680-5

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