TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between friendship characteristics and HIV and HSV-2 status amongst young South African women in HPTN-068:
AU - Fearon, Elizabeth
AU - Wiggins, Richard D.
AU - Pettifor, Audrey E.
AU - MacPhail, Catherine
AU - Kahn, Kathleen
AU - Selin, Amanda
AU - Gómez-Olivé, F. Xavier
AU - Delany-Moretlwe, Sinéad
AU - Piwowar-Manning, Estelle
AU - Laeyendecker, Oliver
AU - Hargreaves, James R.
N1 - Funding Information:
EF was funded with a Bloomsbury Colleges PhD studentship with fieldwork funding from the London International Development Centre. This work was supported by Award Numbers UM1 AI068619 (HPTN Leadership and Operations Center), UM1AI068617 (HPTN Statistical and Data Management Center) and UM1AI068613 (HPTN Laboratory Center) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health. This work was also supported by NIMH R01 (R01MH087118) and the Carolina Population Center and its NIH Center grant (P2C HD050924). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors. Journal of the International AIDS Society published by John Wiley & sons Ltd on behalf of the International AIDS Society.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Introduction: Prevalence of HIV among young women in South Africa remains extremely high. Adolescent peer groups have been found to be an important influence on a range of health behaviours. The characteristics of young women's friendships might influence their sexual health and HIV risk via connections to sexual partners, norms around sexual initiation and condom use, or provision of social support. We investigated associations between young women's friendships and their Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) and HIV infection status in rural South Africa. Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional, egocentric network analysis. In 2011 to 2012, we tested 13- to 20-year-old young women for HIV and HSV-2, and collected descriptions of five friendships for each. We generated summary measures describing friend socio-demographic characteristics and the number of friends perceived to have had sex. We used logistic regression to analyse associations between friend characteristics and participant HIV and HSV-2 infection, excluding likely perinatal HIV infections. Results: There were 2326 participants included in the study sample, among whom HIV and HSV-2 prevalence were 3.3% and 4.6% respectively. Adjusted for participant and friend socio-demographic characteristics, each additional friend at least one year older than the participant was associated with raised odds of HIV (odds ratio (OR) = 1.37, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.82) and HSV-2 (adjusted OR=1.41, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.69). Each additional friend perceived to have ever had sex also raised the odds of HIV (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.63) and HSV-2 (OR=1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.35). Discussion: We found good evidence that a greater number of older friends and friends perceived to have had sex were associated with increased risk for HSV-2 and HIV infection among young women. Conclusions: The characteristics of young women's friendships could contribute to their risk of HIV infection. The extent to which policies or programmes influence age-mixing and young women's normative environments should be considered.
AB - Introduction: Prevalence of HIV among young women in South Africa remains extremely high. Adolescent peer groups have been found to be an important influence on a range of health behaviours. The characteristics of young women's friendships might influence their sexual health and HIV risk via connections to sexual partners, norms around sexual initiation and condom use, or provision of social support. We investigated associations between young women's friendships and their Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) and HIV infection status in rural South Africa. Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional, egocentric network analysis. In 2011 to 2012, we tested 13- to 20-year-old young women for HIV and HSV-2, and collected descriptions of five friendships for each. We generated summary measures describing friend socio-demographic characteristics and the number of friends perceived to have had sex. We used logistic regression to analyse associations between friend characteristics and participant HIV and HSV-2 infection, excluding likely perinatal HIV infections. Results: There were 2326 participants included in the study sample, among whom HIV and HSV-2 prevalence were 3.3% and 4.6% respectively. Adjusted for participant and friend socio-demographic characteristics, each additional friend at least one year older than the participant was associated with raised odds of HIV (odds ratio (OR) = 1.37, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.82) and HSV-2 (adjusted OR=1.41, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.69). Each additional friend perceived to have ever had sex also raised the odds of HIV (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.63) and HSV-2 (OR=1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.35). Discussion: We found good evidence that a greater number of older friends and friends perceived to have had sex were associated with increased risk for HSV-2 and HIV infection among young women. Conclusions: The characteristics of young women's friendships could contribute to their risk of HIV infection. The extent to which policies or programmes influence age-mixing and young women's normative environments should be considered.
KW - HIV
KW - HSV-2
KW - South Africa
KW - adolescents
KW - friendships
KW - peer influence
KW - social networks
KW - social norms
KW - young women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85039702335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85039702335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jia2.25029
DO - 10.1002/jia2.25029
M3 - Article
C2 - 29285883
AN - SCOPUS:85039702335
SN - 1758-2652
VL - 20
JO - Journal of the International AIDS Society
JF - Journal of the International AIDS Society
IS - 4
M1 - e25029
ER -