Study Links Concurrent Sex and HIV

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Study Links Concurrent Sex and HIV

Special Report - November 6, 2007
A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that men who have multiple sexual relationships at one time are contributing to the HIV epidemic in the United States. Published in the October online version of the American Journal of Public Health, the study used data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to monitor the “prevalence of concurrent sexual partnerships [and] associations between concurrency and demographic risk characteristics.” The study found that, during the year preceding the survey, 11 percent of males between the ages of 15 and 44 reported being in concurrent sexual relationships, a behavior pattern that “speeds the population dissemination of HIV.”

Demographically, men engaged in concurrent sexual relationships were more likely to be unmarried, black or Hispanic, and have been incarcerated during the previous year, the study found. These men were also more likely to have used drugs or alcohol during sexual intercourse, participated in homosexual behavior with other men, and had female sexual partners who were engaged in sexual relationships with other men. The study concluded that the “higher concurrency prevalence in various groups, dense sexual networks, and mixing between high-risk subpopulations and the general population may be important factors in the U.S. epidemic of heterosexual HIV infection.”

Jere Royall, counsel and director of community impact for the North Carolina Family Policy Council, said that the study underscores the dangers of sexual activity outside of marriage. “The risk of spreading or contracting a sexually transmitted disease is a threat even among men and women who practice serial monogamy, but that risk is compounded for those who have multiple sexual partners at the same time,” Royall said. “This study reinforces existing research showing the harmful consequences of sexual activity outside of marriage.”