HIV seropositivity and sexuality: cessation of sexual relations among men and women living with HIV in five countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Description of the scales used in the analysis to identify the factors associated with the cessation of sexual relations^a.

Scale	Definition	Interpretation	α
Perceived seriousness of HIV infection (adapted using the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire: Consequence subscale (IPQ-R) (Moss-Morris et al., 2002))	This scale assessed the perceived degree of seriousness of HIV infection	Four of the five items were kept. A high score corresponds to serious perceived consequences	0.83
Serious social consequences scale	This scale assessed if the participant suffered serious social consequences (e.g., living apart from his/her family/children, experiencing physical violence, being insulted, being separated from his/her spouse/partner, because of his/her seropositivity		0.80

^aValidated scales were pre-tested on the field and then adapted. All the items were simplified to a binary choice: Agree/Yes (1) vs Disagree/No (0). Global scores were constructed as the sum of item scores. The unidimensionality of each scale was validated with a principal factor analysis of the tetrachoric correlation matrix, and the internal consistencies were assessed via ordinal alphas (α) (Gadermann, Guhn, & Zumbo, 2012). The results of the factor analyses were good for each scale.

Table 2. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants included in the analysis (n = 1413).

	n (%) or mean (SD)
Country
Ecuador	294 (20.8%)
Mali	294 (20.8%)
Morocco	273 (19.3%)
Democratic Republic of Congo	277 (19.6%)
Romania	276 (19.5%)
Age (years)	36.5 (10.6)
Sex
Man	658 (46.6%)
Woman	755 (53.4%)
Main activity
Unemployed/student/housewife	619 (43.8%)
Formal or informal employment	793 (56.1%)
Current relationship status
Not in a relationship	644 (45.6%)
In a relationship	768 (54.4%)
Having children
No	458 (32.4%)
Yes	954 (67.5%)
Sexual relations with same-sex persons
No	1309 (92.6%)
Yes	104 (7.4%)

Note: SD, standard deviation.

Table 3. Factors associated with the cessation of sexual intercourse for women (n = 775), univariate and multivariate analyses.

	n (%) or mean (SD)		OR [95% CI]^a	p	aOR [95% CI]^b	p
	Women who did not cease sexual intercourse (n = 438)	Women who ceased sexual intercourse (n = 317)
Age (years)	33.5 (9.2)	38.9 (11.0)	1.05 [1.04–1.07]	<.001	1.05 [1.03–1.07]	<.001
Current relationship status
Not in a relationship In a relationship	123 (28.1%) 315 (71.9%)	248 (78.2%) 69 (21.8%)	1 0.11 [0.08–0.15]	<.001	1 0.21 [0.13–0.32]	<.001
Sexual relations with same-sex persons
No Yes	429 (97.9%) 9 (2.0%)	313 (98.7%) 4 (1.3%)	–	.412	–	–
Number of years since HIV diagnosis (years)	5.8 (4.1)	4.8 (3.6)	0.94 [0.90–0.97]	.001	0.92 [0.87–0.98]	.01
HIV test because of symptoms
No Yes	178 (40.6%) 259 (59.1%)	114 (36.0%) 201 (63.4%)	–	.201	–	–
HIV for the rest of your life
No Yes	176 (40.2%) 262 (59.8%)	161 (50.8%) 156 (49.2%)	1 0.65 [0.49–0.88]	.004	–	–
Perceived seriousness of HIV infection (scale)	2.5 (1.7)	2.8 (1.6)	1.14 [1.05–1.25]	.003	–	–
HIV infection perceived as a mystery
No Yes	186 (42.5%) 252 (57.5%)	117 (36.9%) 200 (63.1%)	1 1.26 [0.94–1.7]	.121	–	–
Need of help to disclose HIV serostatus
No Yes	398 (90.9%) 39 (8.9%)	272 (85.8%) 45 (14.2%)	1 1.68 [1.07–2.65]	.025	1 2.08 [1.15–3.76]	.02
Serious social consequences (scale)	0.5 (0.8)	0.8 (1.0)	1.40 [1.19–1.65]	<.001	1.38 [1.11–1.71]	.004
Regular discussions about HIV with steady partner
No Yes	171 (39.0%) 263 (60.0%)	270 (85.2%) 46 (14.5%)	1 0.11 [0.08–0.16]	<.001	1 0.28 [0.17–0.44]	<.001
Feeling of loneliness
No Yes, sometimes Yes, every day	254 (58.0%) 142 (32.4%) 39 (8.9%)	139 (43.8%) 103 (32.5%) 75 (23.7%)	1 1.33 [0.96–1.84] 3.52 [2.27–5.46]	<.001	1 0.96 [0.62–1.48] 2.63 [1.43–4.81]	.003
Number of PLHIV known
≤1 ≥2	47 (10.7%) 391 (89.3%)	47 (14.8%) 270 (85.2%)	1 0.68 [0.44–1.04]	.078	–	–
Find support in CBO
No Yes	199 (45.4%) 239 (54.6%)	176 (55.5%) 141 (44.5%)	1 0.67 [0.50–0.89]	.006	1 0.53 [0.31–0.90]	.02

Note: SD, standard deviation.

^aOR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval/OR are only presented for variables included in the multivariate analyses (p < .2).

^baOR, adjusted odds ratio/OR adjusted on the variables presented here as well as the country/OR are only presented for variables for which p ≤ .05 in the final multivariate analysis.

Table 4. Factors associated with the cessation of sexual intercourse for men (n = 658), univariate and multivariate analyses.

	n (%) or mean (SD)		OR [95% CI]^a	p	aOR [95% CI]^b	p
	Men who did not cease sexual intercourse (n = 505)	Men who ceased sexual intercourse (n = 153)
Age (years)	36.6 (10.9)	39.3 (10.7)	1.02 [1.01–1.04]	.007	1.03 [1.01–1.05]	.01
Current relationship status
Not in a relationship In a relationship	167 (33.1%) 338 (66.9%)	107 (69.9%) 46 (30.1%)	1 0.21 [0.14–0.31]	<.001	–	–
Sexual relations with same-sex persons
No Yes	432 (85.6%) 73 (14.4%)	135 (88.2%) 18 (11.8%)	–	.371	–	–
Number of years since HIV diagnosis (years)	6.0 (4.5)	4.7 (3.9)	0.93 [0.89–0.97]	.002	–	–
HIV test because of symptoms
No Yes	184 (36.4%) 321 (63.6%)	32 (20.9%) 121 (79.1%)	1 2.15 [1.40–3.31]	<.001	1 2.10 [1.24–3.56]	.006
HIV for the rest of your life
No Yes	174 (34.5%) 330 (65.3%)	75 (49.0%) 77 (50.3%)	1 0.54 [0.38–0.78]	.001	1 0.46 [0.27–0.78]	.004
Perceived seriousness of HIV infection (scale)	2.4 (1.6)	3.5 (1.4)	1.62 [1.42–1.84]	<.001	1.61 [1.36–1.92]	<.001
HIV infection perceived as a mystery
No Yes	270 (53.5%) 235 (46.5%)	46 (30.1%) 107 (69.9%)	1 2.69 [1.83–3.97]	<.001	1 1.83 [1.08–3.10]	.025
Need of help to disclose HIV serostatus
No Yes	461 (91.3%) 44 (8.7%)	143 (93.5%) 10 (6.5%)	–	.390	–	–
Serious social consequences (scale)	0.3 (0.7)	0.7 (0.9)	1.72 [1.39–2.14]	<.001	1.68 [1.25–2.25]	.001
Regular discussions about HIV with steady partner
No Yes	170 (33.7%) 335 (66.3%)	124 (81.0%) 28 (18.3%)	1 0.12 [0.07–0.18]	<.001	1 0.09 [0.05–0.15]	<.001
Feeling of loneliness
No Yes, sometimes Yes, every day	325 (64.4%) 138 (27.3%) 38 (7.5%)	50 (32.7%) 51 (33.3%) 46 (30.1%)	1 2.41 [1.56–3.74] 7.99 [4.74–13.47]	<.001	–	–
Number of PLHIV known
≤1 ≥2	39 (7.7%) 466 (92.3%)	35 (22.9%) 113 (73.9%)	1 0.27 [0.17–0.45]	<.001	1 0.48 [0.23–1.00]	.05
Find support in CBO
No Yes	292 (57.8%) 213 (42.2%)	74 (48.4%) 79 (51.6%)	1 1.46 [1.02–2.10]	.041	–	–

Note: SD, standard deviation.

^aOR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval/OR are only presented for variables included in the multivariate analyses (p < .2).

^baOR, adjusted odds ratio/OR adjusted on the variables presented here as well as the country and sexual relations with same-sex persons/OR are only presented for variables for which p ≤ .05 in the final multivariate analysis.

Moss-Morris, R., Weinman, J., Petrie, K., Horne, R., Cameron, L., & Buick, D. (2002). The revised illness perception questionnaire (IPQ-R). Psychology & Health, 17(1), 1–16. doi:10.1080/08870440290001494

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Gadermann, A. M., Guhn, M., & Zumbo, B. D. (2012). Estimating ordinal reliability for Likert-type and ordinal item response data: A conceptual, empirical, and practical guide. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 17(3). Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ977577

 Google Scholar