HIV Insight: Mpumalanga

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Characteristics of Age-Discordant Partnerships Associated with HIV Risk among Young South African Women

OBJECTIVE:

Sexual liaisons between older men and younger women have been linked to greater risk of HIV acquisition. This study aims to: 1) identify psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with age-discordant (partner ≥ 5 years older) versus age-concordant partnerships (-1<partner< 5); and 2) examine the association between partner age discordance and young South African women's sexual behavior.

METHODS:

We used generalized estimating equations to analyze responses from 656 sexually-experienced females (aged 13-20 years) from rural Mpumalanga province.

RESULTS:

Partner age discordance was associated with greater odds of reporting both more frequent sex and having a partner with concurrent partnerships. Age-discordant partnerships were associated with greater odds of: casual partnerships, having a partner with concurrent partnerships and more frequent intercourse (i.e., having sex at least 2 or 3 times per month). They were associated with lower odds of reporting condom use at last sex and always using condoms in age-discordant partnerships.

CONCLUSION:

Our findings suggest that a history of age-discordant partnerships, and to a lesser extent having an age-discordant partner, is linked to HIV risk among young South African women; however, the link between partner age discordance and HIV risk may be more strongly related to the characteristics of age-discordant partnerships than to characteristics of young women who form such partnerships.

Purchase PDF full article at: http://goo.gl/QTPiAc

By: Ritchwood TD1, Hughes JP, Jennings L, MacPhail C, Williamson B, Selin A, Kahn K, Gómez-Olivé FX, Pettifor A.

1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
3 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Seattle, WA.
4 Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
5 School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW.
6 Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
7 Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2016 Mar 11.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Modeling Illicit Drug Use Dynamics and Its Optimal Control Analysis

The global burden of death and disability attributable to illicit drug use, remains a significant threat to public health for both developed and developing nations.

This paper presents a new mathematical modeling framework to investigate the effects of illicit drug use in the community. In our model the transmission process is captured as a social “contact” process between the susceptible individuals and illicit drug users. We conduct both epidemic and endemic analysis, with a focus on the threshold dynamics characterized by the basic reproduction number.

Using our model, we present illustrative numerical results with a case study in Cape Town, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Durban communities of South Africa. In addition, the basic model is extended to incorporate time dependent intervention strategies.

Below: Model system (2) fitted to data for individuals seeking treatment due to illicit drug use. The blue circles indicate the actual data and the solid line indicates the model fit to the data.