Characteristics of African American Women and Their Partners with Perceived Concurrent Partnerships in 4 Rural Counties in the Southeastern U.S.

To the individual with concurrent partners, it is thought that having concurrent partnerships confers no greater risk of acquiring HIV than having multiple consecutive partnerships. However, an individual whose partner has concurrent partnerships (partner's concurrency) is at increased risk for incident HIV infection. We sought to better understand relationships characterized by partner's concurrency among African American women.

A total of 1013 African American women participated in a cross-sectional survey from 4 rural Southeastern counties.

Older age at first sex was associated with lower prevalence of partner's concurrency (prevalence ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval, 0.57-0.87), but the participant's age was not associated with partner's concurrency. After adjusting for covariates, ever having experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) and forced sex were most strongly associated with partner's concurrency. Women in mutually monogamous partnerships were the most likely to receive economic support from their partners; women whose partners had concurrent partnerships did not report more economic benefit than did those whose partners were monogamous.

Associations between history of IPV and forced sex with partner's concurrency suggest that women with these experiences may particularly benefit from interventions to reduce partner's concurrency in addition to support for reducing IPV and other sexual risks. To inform these interventions, further research to understand partnerships characterized by partner's concurrency is warranted.

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By: Ludema C1, Doherty IA, White BL, Villar-Loubet O, McLellan-Lemal E, OʼDaniels CM, Adimora AA.

• 1From the *School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; †RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC; ‡University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL; §Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL; ¶Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Infectious Diseases, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Atlanta, GA; and ∥Carter Consulting, Inc, Atlanta, GA  

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