The interrelationship of men's self-reports of sexual risk behavior and symptoms and laboratory-confirmed STI-status in India

Abstract

This paper describes the interrelationship among men's self-reports of symptoms, unsafe sexual behavior, and biologically tested sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Data are drawn from the baseline survey of six-year (2001–2007) research and intervention project on men's sexual health and HIV/STI risk reduction conducted in three urban poor communities in Mumbai, India. The survey collected a wide range of demographic, attitudinal, knowledge, and behavioral data. In addition, men were tested for common STIs by selecting a systematic random sub-sample of 816 men (assuming 20% non-response). Data in this paper are based on 641 men who had completed the survey interview and for whom the testing of blood and urine samples was conducted. Results suggest that the self-reported STI-like symptoms and unsafe sexual behavior taken together as a predictor of confirmed STIs improve the sensitivity to a significantly greater degree (χ ²=2.83, p<0.05) as compared to the sensitivity of self-reported STI-like symptoms or unsafe sexual behavior alone as a predictor of confirmed STIs. In addition, the consistency of self-report was found to vary among socio-demographic and behaviorally defined sub-groups. These results provide preliminary support for the importance of population-based surveys, which collect all the three types of data such as reported behavior, symptoms and laboratory confirmed STIs for a full understanding of sexual risk and STIs and for identification of sub-groups within communities that vary in their ability to identify STI symptoms.

Keywords:

• sensitivity
• STI-like symptoms
• unsafe sexual behavior
• sexually transmitted infections
• India

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the role of the field researchers at the International Institute for Population Sciences, whose dedication to their work directly contributed to the quality of the data. The data for this paper were drawn from the project, “Men's Sexual Concerns and Prevention of HIV/STD in India,” funded by the US National Institute for Mental Health (RO1 MH064875).