Sexual activities and social relationships of people with HIV in Japan

Abstract

Sixty-one Japanese with sexually transmitted HIV were investigated to clarify the state of, and difficulties in, their sexual activities and social relationships. The study revealed the following difficulties in social relationships due to HIV infection. Thirty-one per cent had experienced discrimination or breach of confidentiality. Self-restriction due to anxiety over discrimination was observed in approximately 90%, and the self-restriction score tended to be higher in those who were not employed, those with economic problems, those who were in a relatively poor state of health, those who had developed AIDS and those who had previously experienced discrimination or breach of confidentiality. The experience of discrimination or breach of confidentiality, and the experience of receiving negative support tended to increase as the respondents had a wider emotional support network. About 60% were dissatisfied with their sex lives, and the degree of satisfaction was significantly lower in those who had fewer sexual contacts and those who had a suppressive attitude toward sexual contacts. A low degree of satisfaction with sex life was found to be an important factor that escalates the level of depression or anxiety.

Acknowledgments

This study was conducted as a part of ‘Socio-Epidemiological Studies on Monitoring and Prevention of HIV/AIDS’, a research project supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Labor, Health and Welfare, Japan for Research on HIV/AIDS. We thank Dr Aikichi Iwamoto and Michiko Murakami for clinical assistance. We thank all the members of the Department of Health Sociology, University of Tokyo for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. We also thank Keiko Ichihashi, Narumi Hori, Masae Kamiya, Megumi Ohori, Reiko Oritsu, Katsuhiko Tsuru, Takahiro Ebisawa, and the people with HIV around us for helpful comments and collaboration for the survey.