A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health sciences, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science in Medicine in Epidemiology and Biostatistics
30th May 2012 / Introduction
The burden of HIV/AIDS is higher in the sub-Saharan region and multiple sexual partnerships
are among the sexual behaviors that put people at risk of HIV transmission. The main aim of this
study was to determine the prevalence and associated demographic, socio-economic and
behavioral factors of multiple sexual partnerships among men in Zimbabwe.
Materials and Methods
This was an analytical cross-sectional study that used data from the Zimbabwe Demographic
Health Survey 2005-06. Negative binomial regressions were fitted to identify factors associated
with multiple sexual partnerships among men in Zimbabwe.
Results
The prevalence of multiple sexual partnerships was 13.5 %, 12.9%, and 11.2% among the
formerly, never and currently married men respectively. Among the formerly married men, the
risk factors significantly associated with multiple sexual partnerships included access to
newspapers (RR= 1.28; 95% CI:1.02 , 1.60). Formerly married men aged 35-44 years had lower
risk of engaging in multiple sex partnerships (RR = 0.59, 95%CI: 0.42, 0.83) than the other age
groups. Relative to formerly married men in Manicaland, formerly married men in Mashonaland
East region had lower risks of having more sexual partners. Age at first intercourse and sexual
attitude were also significantly associated with multiple sexual partnerships among the formerly
married men
iv
Among the never married men, the risk factors associated with multiple sexual partnerships
included employment status (RR = 1.33%; 95%CI: 1.17, 1.52), Watching TV (RR = 1.33%;
95%CI: 1.05, 1.69) and sexual attitude (RR = 1.37%; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.79).
Relative to never married men in Manicaland, the never married men in Mashonaland East and
Mashonaland West had lower risks of having multiple sexual partners.
Among the married men, the risk factors associated with multiple sexual partnerships included
first intercourse at the age of 19 years or below (RR = 1.07%; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.11) and sexual
attitude (RR = 1.16%; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.23). Protective factors included higher level of education
(RR = 0.87%; 95% CI: 0.77, 0.98), being 35-44 (RR = 0.94%; 95% CI: 0.89, 0.99) or 45-54
years old (RR = 0.93%; 95% CI: 0.88, 0.99) and being from Mashonaland East (RR= 0.89%;
95%CI: 0.85, 0.93) region.
Discussion and Conclusions
The results show that after adjusting for potential confounders in the multivariate negative
binomial regression analysis; age, geographical region, education, working status, frequency of
reading newspapers/magazines/TV, age at first intercourse and sexual attitude remained
significantly associated with MSP. However, the extent to which each of these factors was
associated with multiple sex partnership varied among marital status groups, therefore
HIV/AIDS intervention programs should be designed accordingly.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/13658 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mutenheri, Enard |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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