Citation

Becker ML, Bhattacharjee P, Blanchard JF, Cheuk E, Isac S, Musyoki HK, Gichangi P, Aral S, Pickles M, Sandstrom P, Ma H, Mishra S. J. Acquir. Immune Defic. Syndr. (LWW) 2018; 79(3): 296-304.

Affiliation

Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/QAI.0000000000001826

PMID

30113403

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) experience high rates of HIV early in their sexual life-course. We estimated the prevalence of HIV-associated vulnerabilities at first sex, and their association with lifetime gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional bio-behavioural survey among AGYW (14-24 years) in Mombasa, Kenya in 2015. We compared the prevalence of first sex vulnerabilities across AGYW who self-identified as engaging in sex work (N=408), transactional sex (N=177) or casual sex (N=714); and used logistic regression to identify age-adjusted associations between first sex vulnerabilities and outcomes (GBV after first sex; HIV).

RESULTS: The median age at first sex was 16 years (IQR 14 - 18). 43.6% received gifts or money at first sex; 41.2% and 11.2% experienced a coerced and forced first sex respectively. First sex vulnerabilities were generally more common among AGYW in sex work. GBV (prevalence 23.8%) and HIV (prevalence 5.6%) were associated with first sex before age 15 (GBV AOR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-1.9; HIV AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-1.3); before or within 1 year of menarche (GBV AOR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.7; HIV AOR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.6); and receipt of money (GBV AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4-2.5; HIV AOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.4).

CONCLUSION: HIV-associated vulnerabilities begin at first sex and potentially mediate an AGYW's trajectory of risk. HIV prevention programmes should include structural interventions that reach AGYW early, and screening for a history of first sex vulnerabilities could help identify AGYW at risk of ongoing GBV and HIV.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Language: en