Sex, rights and the law in a world with AIDS: Meeting report and recommendations

Abstract

Design: Men’s data from the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand (n=12,240) from
the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) were used to identify risk factors for men’s reported
higher-risk sexual behaviors. Key explanatory variables were based on gender equality constructs:
men’s attitudes to wife-beating, family violence history, views on whether women had the right to
refuse having sex with their partners, and views on whether women had the right to make household decisions and have (nancial autonomy.
Sex, Rights and the Law in a World with AIDS | 31
Methods: Descriptive analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between higher-risk sex
and each of the gender equality and socio-demographic variables. Logistic regression models were
then (t to explore the independent in)uence of men’s gender equality factors on higher-risk sex.
Results: After controlling for socio-demographic factors, gender equality factors were signi(cantly
and independently associated with men’s higher-risk sex. Men who were signi(cantly more likely
to engage in higher-risk sex were those who had a history of family violence [OR=1.87 (1.43-2.44)],
viewed wife-abuse favorably [OR=1.30 (1.01-1.68)] and felt that women did not have the right to
refuse having sex with their husbands [OR=1.52 (1.03-2.25)]. To reduce Indian men’s higher-risk sex,
HIV/STI prevention e'orts must promote gender equality acceptance men, including an emphasis
on the need to eliminate violence against women