Sexual behaviors among women living with HIV in Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT

Understanding the sexual activities and partnerships of women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains important to promote healthy sexuality and to reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. We described sexual behaviors of women living with HIV enrolled in an ongoing study in Ontario, Canada. Data were available from 582 women who self-completed a sexual behavior questionnaire between 2010 and 2012. Nearly half (46.1%) of women reported a sexual partner in the preceding three months; women less likely to be sexually active were older, Black/African, separated, divorced, widowed, single, and unemployed. Most sexually active women had one partner (76.4%), a regular partner (75.9%), male (96.2%) partner(s), and partners who were HIV-negative or unknown HIV status (75.2%). Women were more likely to use a condom with HIV-negative/status unknown partners (81.3%) than with HIV-positive partners (58.6%; p  = .008). Only 8.0% of sexually active women reported condomless sex with a discordant HIV-negative/status unknown partner when their viral load was detectable. Overall, most women living with HIV were sexually inactive or engaged in sexual activities that were low risk for HIV transmission.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• HIV
• sex partners
• sexual behavior
• condoms

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Stephanie Smith and Gladys Kwaramba for their contributions. We gratefully acknowledge all of the people living with HIV who volunteered to participate in the OHTN Cohort Study and the work and support of the past and present members of the OCS Governance Committee: Adrian Betts, Anita C. Benoit, Breklyn Bertozzi, Les Bowman, Lisungu Chieza, Tracey Conway, Patrick Cupido (Chair), Tony Di Pede, Brian Finch, Michael J. Hamilton, Brian Huskins, Rick Kennedy, Ken King, Nathan Lachowsky, Joanne Lindsay, Shari Margolese, Mark McCallum, John McTavish, Colleen Price, Lori Stoltz, Darien Taylor, Rosie Thein, and Drs AMB, Evan Collins, Curtis Cooper, Clemon George, Troy Grennan, Claire Kendall, and Greg Robinson. We thank all the interviewers, data collectors, research associates and coordinators, nurses and physicians who provide support for data collection and extraction, and OHTN staff for data management, IT support, and study coordination (Kevin Challacombe, Robert Hudder, Veronika Moravan, Nahid Qureshi). We also thank Ramandip Grewal for administrative assistance in formatting the manuscript. We acknowledge the Public Health Laboratories, Public Health Ontario, for supporting record linkage with the HIV viral load database.

Disclosure statement

The opinions, results and conclusions are those of the authors and no endorsement by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network or Public Health Ontario is intended or should be inferred. The authors have no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct application of this research.

Additional information

Funding

The OHTN Cohort Study is supported by the AIDS Bureau, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. ANB was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator award.