Concurrent Sexual Partnership Patterns and Characteristics Among Young Heterosexual Adults at Increased HIV Risk

Young adults have the highest rates of reported chlamydia and gonorrhea infection and the highest rate of HIV diagnoses of any age group. Concurrent sexual partnerships are most common among young adults and are a risk factor for STI transmission and acquisition. Characteristics of concurrent partnerships, including coital frequency, condom use, and the duration of relationship overlap, affect an individual’s risk of STI acquisition. Previous research has described types of concurrency; however, little is known about the characteristics of these concurrency types that may differentially affect STI risk.  Data come from the Project on Partner Dynamics, a longitudinal study of the heterosexual involvements of an ethnically diverse sample of men (n=261) and women (n=275) ages 18-30 at increased risk of acquiring HIV.  Participants completed four in-person interviews over a 12-month period. At baseline, 46% of male and 32% of female participants reported at least two overlapping sexual partnerships in the previous 4 months, and 30% of men and 13% of women reported more than two overlapping sexual partnerships.  Multilevel random intercept models were used to estimate mean number of lifetime sexual partners, coital frequency, proportion of condom-protected acts, and total overlap. Condom use ranged from 50% - 63%, with those in the transitional concurrency category reporting the highest use (63% for men, 62% for women) and those in contained concurrency the lowest (52% for men, 50% for women). Lifetime sex partners, coital frequency and total overlap also varied by concurrency type.  Results and implications of the findings will be discussed.