Dissolution of transactional sex relationships during COVID-19: a qualitative study of Ugandan men’s experiences during COVID-19 lockdowns

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigation measures led to social disruption and negative economic shocks for a large proportion of Uganda’s population. The social and economic consequences of COVID-19 on Ugandan men’s sexual behaviours, including transactional sex relationships, are unclear. We conducted in-depth interviews between November 2021–February 2022 with 26 men in a high HIV prevalence region of Uganda. Data were analysed thematically to understand how sexual relationships, including transactional sex, were impacted by COVID-19. We found that COVID-19 mitigation measures had far-reaching social and economic impacts on most respondents, particularly those employed in the informal economy. Men described experiencing job loss, food insecurity and restricted mobility, which limited opportunities to provide for and meet with transactional sex partners. Inability to provide financial resources meant that men could not form new transactional sex relationships and men who could no longer provide for their existing transactional sex partners consistently reported relationship dissolution. Men who reported stable employment during the pandemic described few changes in transactional sex relationships. Similarly, men in non-transactional relationships did not report relationship dissolution despite decreased financial provision. Further research should assess the potential short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 mitigation measures on transactional sex relationships.

Keywords:

• Uganda
• men
• COVID-19
• Africa
• sexual relationships
• transactional sex
• heterosexual men

Acknowledgements

A thank you goes to the study participants who shared their time and experiences to make this study possible. We are grateful to the Rakai Health Sciences Program staff, particularly those in Social and Behavioral Sciences Department for their support of this project. Finally, we thank, Kirsten Stoebenau for her thoughtful reflections and feedback on the research and manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a US National Institutes of Mental Health Ruth L. Kirstein Pre-Doctoral Fellowship under grant number F31MH124535 to the Center for Qualitative Studies in Health and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as by a Johns Hopkins University COVID-Relief Fellowship.