Condom Use with Steady Partners Among Heterosexual People Living with HIV in Europe:
Abstract Guided by a modified information-motivation-behavioral skills model, this study identified predictors of condom use among heterosexual people living with HIV with their steady partners. Consecutive patients at 14 European HIV outpatient clinics received an anonymous, standardized, self-administered questionnaire between March and December 2007. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and two-step backward elimination regression analyses stratified by gender. The survey included 651 participants (n = 364, 56% women; n = 287, 44%). Mean age was 39 years for women and 43 years for men. Most had acquired HIV sexually and more than half were in a serodiscordant relationship. Sixty-three percent (n = 229) of women and 59% of men (n = 169) reported at least one sexual encounter with a steady partner 6 months prior to the survey. Fifty-one percent (n = 116) of women and 59% of men (n = 99) used condoms consistently with that partner.
In other words, large numbers of HIV patients are having sex without condoms, thereby putting their non-HIV partners in danger.
Having a partner whose HIV status was positive or unknown reduced condom use.
In other words, in these serodiscordant relationships, even though it is uncertain that one of the partners is HIV positive, they still did not use condoms.
Service providers should pay attention to the identified predictors of condom use and adopt comprehensive and gender-related approaches for preventive interventions with people living with HIV.
Or maybe that given the condom failure rate of 10%, providers should tell people with HIV to stop having sex.
That's an interesting number that was left out. How many of these partners contracted HIV during these steady relationships?
