Authors: Brendan MaughanBrown Susan Godlonton Rebecca Thornton Atheendar S Venkataramani
Publish Date: 2014/08/26
Volume: 19, Issue: 7, Pages: 1170-1177
Abstract
Qualitative studies and polling data from subSaharan Africa indicate that many individuals may mistakenly believe that male circumcision directly protects women from contracting HIV This study examines whether individuals who learn that male circumcision reduces femaletomale HIV transmission also erroneously infer a reduction in direct maletofemale transmission risk ie from an HIVpositive man to an uninfected woman We used data on Malawian men n = 917 randomized to receive information about voluntary medical male circumcision VMMC and HIV risk in 2008 and a random sample of their wives n = 418 We found that 72 of men and 82 of women who believed that male circumcision reduces HIV risk for men also believed that it reduces HIV risk for women Regression analyses indicated that men randomly assigned to receive information about the protective benefits of circumcision were more likely to adopt the erroneous beliefs and that the underlying mechanism was the formation of the belief that male circumcision reduces HIV risk for men The results suggest the need for VMMC campaigns to make explicit that male circumcision does not directly protect women from HIVinfectionWe would like to thank Martin Abel Nicola Branson Arden Finn David MaughanBrown Rebecca MaughanBrown Elizabeth Gummerson Edward Okeke and three anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions Brendan MaughanBrown is grateful for funding from the National Research Foundation NRF Research Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research for his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Atheendar S Venkataramani is grateful to the Massachusetts General Hospital Global Primary Care Program for travel and research support We acknowledge the extensive contributions of the field team including James Amani Sheena Kayira Collins Kwizombe Denise Matthijsse Ernest Mlenga and Christopher Nyirenda We also thank assistance from Kondwani Chidziwisano Jessica Kraft Erica Marks Julie Moran Jason Stanley and Kondwani Tomoko Funding for this study was provided by Michigan Center for Demography of Aging MiCDA OVPR and Rackham at the University of Michigan as well as the Institute for Research on Women and Gender Godlonton and Thornton gratefully acknowledge use of the services and facilities of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan funded by NICHD Center Grant R24
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