The Impact of Married Individuals Learning HIV Status in Malawi: Divorce, Number of Sexual Partners, Condom Use with Spouses

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
PSC Working Paper Series
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Divorce
HIV testing
HIV testing and counseling
HTC
HIV/AIDS
Malawi
Sexual behavior
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract

This paper assesses how knowledge of HIV status gained through HIV testing and counseling (HTC) by married individuals affects divorce, the number of sexual partners and the use of condoms within marriage. Instrumental variable probit and linear models are estimated, using a randomized experiment administered as part of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health. The results indicate that knowledge of HIV status (1) does not affect chances of divorce for either HIV-negative or HIV-positive respondents; (2) reduces the number of sexual partners among HIV-positive respondents, and (3) increases condom use with spouses for both HIV-negative and HIV-positive respondents. These results imply that individuals actively respond to learning HIV status through HTC, invoking protective behavior against future risk of HIV/AIDS for themselves and their actual and potential sexual partners.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2013-03-20
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended Citation: Fedor, Theresa M., Hans-Peter Kohler, and Jere R. Behrman. 2013. "The Impact of Married Individuals Learning HIV Status in Malawi: Divorce, Number of Sexual Partners, Condom Use with Spouses." PSC Working Paper Series, PSC 13-02. This working paper was published in a journal: Fedor, Theresa M., Hans-Peter Kohler, and Jere R. Behrman. 2015. "The Impact of Married Individuals Learning HIV Status in Malawi: Divorce, Number of Sexual Partners, and Condom Use with Spouses." Demography 52(1):259-280. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0364-z.
Recommended citation
Collection