Risk factors for HIV-AIDS among youth in Cape Town, South Africa
SOURCE: AIDS and Behavior
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2005
TITLE AUTHOR(S): L.C.Simbayi, S.C.Kalichman, S.Jooste, C.Cherry, S.Mfecane, D.Cain
KEYWORDS: HIV/AIDS, YOUTH
DEPARTMENT: Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 2910
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7292
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7292
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2005
TITLE AUTHOR(S): L.C.Simbayi, S.C.Kalichman, S.Jooste, C.Cherry, S.Mfecane, D.Cain
KEYWORDS: HIV/AIDS, YOUTH
DEPARTMENT: Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 2910
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7292
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7292
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
South Africa is in the midst of a devastating HIV-AIDS epidemic and most new HIV infections occur among young adults and adolescents. The current study examined risk behaviors and HIV risk factors among young people living in a Black South African township. Using community-based outreach methods of street intercept and facility-based surveying, 113 men and 115 women age 25 and younger responded to an anonymous survey. Results showed that men (68%) and women (56%) reported HIV-related high risk sexual behaviors. Although knowledge about HIV transmission was generally high, there was evidence that misconceptions about AIDS persist, particularly myths related to HIV transmission. For young men, HIV risk factors were associated with fewer years of education, lower levels of AIDS-related knowledge, condom attitudes, and Dagga (marijuana) use. Among young women, HIV risk factors were associated with beliefs that condoms get in the way of sex and rates of unprotected vaginal intercourse. Despite adequate general AIDS knowledge and risk sensitization, South African youth demonstrated high rates of sexual practices that place them at risk for HIV infection. There is an urgent need for behavioral interventions targeted to young South Africans living in the most economically disadvantaged areas.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Fertility: current South African issues of poverty, HIV/AIDS & youth: seminar proceedings
- Using CHAMP to prevent youth HIV risk in South African townships
- Evaluation on non-profit organisations in the Free State Province in the field of HIV/AIDS: first draft report
- Evaluation of HIV/AIDS prevention intervention messages on a rural sample of South African youth's knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours over a period of 15 months
- Sexuality of black South African university students in the context of HIV/AIDS
- Sexuality of 16- to 17- year-old South Africans in the contexts of HIV/AIDS
- AIDS advocacy in South Africa
- HIV/AIDS information credibility and seeking among South African youth
- Rapid appraisal of substance abuse and HIV awareness messages in poster communication to disadvantaged youth in South Africa
- Abstinence and faithfulness programmes for prevention of HIV/AIDS among young people: what are the current debates?
- HIV transmission dynamics in South African youth aged 15 to 24 years
- Youth voices about sex and AIDS: implications for life skills education through the 'Learning Together' project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- On working with a single photograph
- Evaluation of HIV/AIDS intervention prevention messages on a rural sample on South Africa's youth knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours over a period of 15 months
- Key issues on reproductive health, poverty, gender, youth, and HIV emerging from the 2005 SABSSM national household surveillance study
- South African national HIV prevalence, incidence, behaviour and communication survey, 2008: a turning tide among teenagers?
- Building protective factors to offset sexually risky behaviors among black youths: a randomized control trial
- Intergenerational/age-disparate sex and young women's vulnerability in southern Africa
- State of the epidemic: progress and challenges in prevention among youth: part 1 - epidemiology of HIV among youth in South Africa
- Age-disparate and intergenerational sex in southern Africa: the dynamics of hypervulnerability