142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Where everybody knows your name: Frequency of attendance at drinking venues, social support, and HIV-related sexual behavior in South Africa

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Laurie Abler, PhD, MPH , Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC
Kathleen J. Sikkema, Ph.D. , Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC
Melissa Watt, PhD , Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC
Donald Skinner, PhD , Center for Research on Health and Society, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa
Lisa Eaton, PhD , Human Development and Family Studies/CHIP, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Jennifer Velloza, MPH , Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC
Desiree Pieterse, MPH , Center for Research on Health and Society, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa
Seth C. Kalichman, PhD , Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Background: Drinking venues create opportunities that can lead to HIV-related sexual risk behaviors, but social support among venue patrons may help mitigate these risks. The present study examines the relationship between venue attendance, social support in the venue, and sexual risk behavior by gender in South Africa.

Methods: Adult patrons (n=504) were recruited from six drinking venues in a Cape Town township. Participants completed a survey that assessed venue attendance, venue social support, and sexual behavior (number of partners, proportion of unprotected sex). Generalized linear models, using generalized estimating equations to account for venue nesting, tested the interaction between social support and daily attendance on the sexual behavior outcomes. Models were adjusted for age and race and were conducted separately by gender.

Results: Daily venue attendance was similar across genders (15.5%). Females who attended daily reported more social support than those who attended less than daily; males had no differences. Among females, social support interacted with daily attendance such that it buffered the positive association between attendance and the sexual risk behaviors. Among males, no interaction effects between attendance and social support were found on the sexual behavior outcomes; however, the main effect of social support was positively associated with number of partners and the main effects of social support and attendance were negatively associated with unprotected sex.

Conclusions: Social support consistently buffered women, but not men, against the sexual risk associated with daily venue attendance. Successful HIV interventions in these drinking venues should address the gendered-context of sexual risk.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the relationship between drinking venue attendance and HIV-related sexual risk behaviors among women and men. Assess the role of social support in the venues as a protective factor for sexual risk behaviors for women and men. Explain the interaction between social support and venue attendance on sexual risk behavior for women and men.

Keyword(s): HIV Risk Behavior, Behavioral Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am currently a postdoctoral associate responsible for conceptualizing and analyzing the data for the study presented in this abstract. For the last decade, I have focused on HIV interventions and behavioral research with multiple populations in different settings (US-based and international).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2034.0: Sexual Behavior and HIV