Population Council Research that makes a difference

Studies in Family Planning

December 2009, Vol. 40, No. 4

Articles

• HIV Infection and Fertility Preferences in Rural Malawi / Sara Yeatman

  Although HIV-prevalence and fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa are among the highest in the world, little is known about how HIV infection affects the fertility preferences of men and women in the region. A quasi-experimental design and in-depth interviews conducted in rural Malawi are employed to examine how and through what pathways learning that one is HIV positive alters a person’s childbearing desires. Among rural Malawians, particularly men, the desire to have more children decreases after receiving a positive HIV-test result. The motivations underlying this effect are greatly influenced by gender: women fear the physical health consequences of HIV-positive pregnancies and childbearing, whereas men see childbearing as futile because they anticipate their own early death and the deaths of their future children. Considerable ambivalence remains, nevertheless, particularly among women who strategize to live normal lives in spite of their infection, but whose definitions of “normal” vary. (Studies in Family Planning 2009; 40[4]: 261–276) (offsite link*)
   

• Using Multiple Sampling Approaches to Measure Sexual Risk-taking Among Young People in Haiti: Programmatic Implications / Ilene S. Speizer, Harry Beauvais, Anu Manchikanti Gómez, Theresa Finn Outlaw, and Barbara Roussel

  No previous published research has examined the applicability of varying methods for identifying young people who are at high risk of experiencing unintended pregnancy and acquiring HIV infection. This study compares three surveys of young people aged 15–24 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics and sexual behaviors and the surveys’ usefulness for identifying young people at high risk and for program planning. The surveys consist of responses from: a representative sample of young people in the 2005–06 Haiti Demographic and Health Survey (HDHS), a 2004 facility-based study, and a 2006–07 venue-based study that used the Priorities for Local AIDS Control Efforts (PLACE) method. The facility-based and PLACE studies included larger proportions of single, sexually experienced young people and people who knew someone with HIV/AIDS than did the HDHS. More respondents in the PLACE sample had multiple sex partners in the past year and received money or gifts in return for sex, compared with respondents in the facility study. At first and last sex, more PLACE respondents used contraceptives, including condoms. Experience of pregnancy was most commonly reported in the data from the facility-based sample; however, more ever-pregnant PLACE respondents than others reported ever having terminated a pregnancy. Program managers seeking to implement prevention activities should consider using facility- or venue-based methods to identify and understand the behaviors of young people at high risk. (Studies in Family Planning 2009; 40[4]: 277–288) (offsite link*)

• The Impact of the African Youth Alliance Program on the Sexual Behavior of Young People in Uganda / Ali Mehryar Karim, Timothy Williams, Leslie Patykewich, Disha Ali, Charlotte E. Colvin, Jessica Posner, and Gideon Rutaremwa

  This study evaluates the impact of the African Youth Alliance (AYA) program on the sexual behavior of young people aged 17–22 in Uganda. Between 2000 and 2005, the comprehensive multicomponent AYA program implemented behavior-change communication and youth-friendly clinical services, and it coordinated policy and advocacy. The program provided institutional capacity building and established coordination mechanisms between agencies that implemented programs for young people. The analysis of findings from both a self-reported exposure design and a static group comparison design indicated that AYA had a positive impact on sexual behavior among young females but not among young males. AYA-exposed girls were at least 13 percentage points more likely to report having used a condom at last sex, at least 10 percentage points more likely to report that they had consistently used condoms with their current partner, at least 10 percentage points more likely to have used contraceptives at last sex, and 13 percentage points more likely to have had fewer sex partners during the past 12 months, compared with girls who were not exposed to the AYA program. Scaling up the AYA program in Uganda could, therefore, be expected to improve significantly the sexual and reproductive health of young women. Effective strategies for promoting safer sexual behaviors among boys and young men must be identified, however. (Studies in Family Planning 2009; 40[4]: 289–306) (offsite link*)
  

• The Effectiveness of a Community-based Education Program on Abandoning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Senegal / Nafissatou J. Diop and Ian Askew

  A pre- and post-test comparison-group design was used to evaluate the effect of a community education program on community members’ willingness to abandon female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in rural areas of southern Senegal. Developed by TOSTAN (a Senegalese nongovernmental organization), the education program aimed to empower women through a broad range of educational and health-promoting activities. Our findings suggest that information from the program was diffused widely within the intervention villages, as indicated by improvements in knowledge about and critical attitudes toward FGM/C among women and men who had and had not participated in the program, without corresponding improvement in the comparison villages. The prevalence of FGM/C among daughters aged ten years and younger decreased significantly over time as reported by women who were directly and indirectly exposed to the program, but not among daughters in the comparison villages, suggesting that the program had an impact on family behaviors as well as attitudes. Findings from this study provide evidence-based information to program planners seeking to empower women and discourage a harmful traditional practice. (Studies in Family Planning 2009; 40[4]: 307–318) (offsite link*)
   

• Use of Dual Protection in Botswana / Joan Marie Kraft, Christine Galavotti, Marion Carter, Denise J. Jamieson, Lesego Busang, Douglas Fleming, and Peter H. Kilmarx

  High rates of unintended pregnancy and of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections prompt calls for use of “dual-protection” strategies, including consistent condom use or dual-method use. This study examines the use of dual-protection strategies in a sample of 15–49-year-old men and women in Botswana in 2003. Half of sexually active respondents reported consistent condom use in the past year; 2.5 percent reported dual-method use. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that urban residence, less than a ten-year age difference between partners, discussing HIV and contraception with one’s partner, not intending to have a child in the next year, having no children, being in a relationship where one or both partners have additional concurrent partners, and supportive condom norms were associated with dual protection—that is, with consistent condom or dual-method use. In the context of high HIV prevalence, concerns about disease prevention likely influence contraception, and interventions should address childbearing desires and sexual risk simultaneously. (Studies in Family Planning 2009; 40[4]: 319–328) (offsite link*)

Data

• Democratic Republic of Congo 2007: Results from the Demographic and Health Survey (offsite link*)
• Indonesia 2007: Results from the Demographic and Health Survey (offsite link*)

Book Review (offsite link*)

• Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
  Michelle J. Hindin

* Journal subscribers will be able to access a PDF of the article online; nonsubscribers will be given access after paying a fee.

 

To read abstracts or search contents of previous volumes, visit Wiley-Blackwell (volumes 1999-2009) or JSTOR (volumes 1963-2006).

 

Studies in Family Planning Cumulative Index

Cumulative Index
Volumes 1–40, 1963–2009

A cumulative index to SFP is available in a PDF file. The PDF file includes a list of contents by author and subject.

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To search contents of previous volumes, visit Wiley-Blackwell (volumes 1999-2009) or JSTOR (volumes 1963-2006).

 

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