Author(s)

Chris Kenyon

Professor in Sexually Transmitted Infections HIV/STD Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.

High rates of overlapping sexual relationships (concurrency) are believed to be important in the generation of generalized HIV epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. Different authors favor socioeconomic, gender-equity or cultural explanations for the high concurrency rates in this region. We performed linear regression to analyze the association between the point-prevalence of concurrency in 15 - 49 years old males and various indicators of socioeconomic status and gender-equity using data from 11 countries surveyed in 1989/1990. We found no meaningful association between concurrency and the various markers of socioeconomic status and gender-equity. This analysis supports the findings of other studies that high concurrency rates in sub-Saharan Africa could be reduced without having to address socioeconomic and gender-equity factors.

Concurrency, HIV, Culture, Gender Inequality, Poverty, Prevalence

Kenyon, C. (2015) The Prevalence of Sexual Partner Concurrency Is Not Correlated with Markers of Poverty or Gender Inequality: An Ecological Analysis. World Journal of AIDS, 5, 322-327. doi: 10.4236/wja.2015.54035.