Funding Source and Period: HIV Center Pilot Studies Program; 2010-2011

 

Key HIV Center Personnel:
Investigator: Joanne Mantell, Ph.D.

 

Project Overview
(from abstract)

HIV/STI prevalence in the Middle East and North Africa region is one of the lowest in the world. Most HIV infections continue to be among men via sex with men and injecting drug use, but the overall pattern appears to be an increasing proportion of infected women. The gender difference in HIV prevalence appears to reflect transmission from men with identifiable risk behaviors to their wives with no identifiable risk behaviors. Voluntary counseling and testing data indicate that women are less likely to be tested. However, limited understanding of transmission dynamics and behaviors among women highlights the need for this exploratory study, with the following specific aims:

1) to enhance understanding of the structural, social, cultural, and gendered contexts and processes of HIV/STI risk and prevention behaviors, particularly the role of marriage, among women;

2) to characterize the HIV-related knowledge, attitudes and risk and prevention behaviors of women at most risk; and

3) to identify the structural, and individual, facilitators of and barriers to HIV/STI testing adn the use of reproductive health services among women at high risk for HIV/STIs.

This study is also assessing the feasibility of conducting future study in either Lebanon or Jordan in terms of access to high-risk populations of women, study sites, and participant recruitment strategies and venues via site visits and discussions with key stakeholders.

 

<back to top>