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Intimate partner violence (IPV) “is common among women who attend an STD clinic and warrants increased attention,” concluded the authors of the current study.
IPV is associated with a broad range of negative outcomes, including sexual risk behavior. The team undertook this cross-sectional study to explore mediators of the relationship between IPV and risky sexual behavior in female attendees of an STD clinic.
The participants, 717 women, were recruited from a public STD clinic in upstate New York as part of a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate several risk-reduction interventions. An audio computer-assisted self-interview was administered in a private room.
Among the women, 57 percent reported lifetime experience of IPV, and 18 percent reported IPV in the past three months. Recently reported IPV was associated with greater sexual risk as measured by more episodes of unprotected sex (both overall and with a steady partner).
“Although IPV was associated with depressive symptoms and drug use before sex, these variables did not mediate the relationship between IPV and sexual risk behavior,” the authors wrote. “Research is needed to better understand the pathways linking IPV and HIV risk in women, to optimize the design of effective interventions.”
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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