Study Suggests Self-Protection Against AIDS
A USC study suggests the responsibility of “safe sex” rests with the individual and that one cannot count on a sexual partner for protection against infection with the AIDS virus.
The federally funded study, presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn., found that of 90 men and women known to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, half had continued to have sex.
Of those, 17 men, or 19% of the total group, continued to have sex without informing one or more of their partners that they were infected. By contrast, all of the women who continued to have sex informed their partners, according to their responses in confidential questionnaires.
“The findings support the idea that individuals must assume responsibility for protecting themselves from HIV infection,” said Gary Marks, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the USC School of Medicine and an author of the study. “Others cannot be depended upon to behave in a socially protective manner.”
The researchers did not analyze the specific sexual practices of the 76 men and 14 women in the study. But generally, they said, sex occurred both with and without condoms and included activities such as anal intercourse, considered especially risky in terms of spreading the virus.
The other findings included the following:
- Those who withheld the fact of their infection were on average slightly younger and less educated than their more forthcoming counterparts. They tended to have fewer physical symptoms and to have been diagnosed for a longer period of time, the study found.
- Men and women were more likely to reveal their diagnosis to others if those people knew of the infected person’s sexual preference. Less than 10% of the gay and bisexual men in the study disclosed their diagnosis to friends, parents or employers unaware of their orientation.
- Whether a person revealed their diagnosis depended on how serious they considered the consequences of the revelation to be. However, the actual consequences of disclosing the information were often less serious than the infected person believed.
