Sex of sex partner [message #1711] |
Tue, 01 April 2014 15:02 |
Avi Hakim
Messages: 4 Registered: April 2014 Location: United States
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The current presentation of questions incorrectly assumes that women only have sex with men and men only have sex with women. Women who have sex exclusively with women cannot report on these sex acts. The same is true for men who have sex exclusively with men. This results in false estimates of risk and sexual behavior. Furthermore, it has a stigmatizing effect on MSM and WSW by not including them in the survey.
For every sex partner, I suggest adding a question about the sex of that partner. These data will better facilitate estimating the number of MSM in a country, the extent to which MSM are a 'bridge' population to the general population, the number of sex partners a person has, the kinds of partners they have, and the risk for HIV transmission and acquisition in the behaviors they engage in. This will further be useful for monitoring trends in risk behavior as well as conducting modeling.
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