Sexual Risk, Serostatus and Intimate Partner Violence Among Couples During Pregnancy in Rural South Africa

The aim of this study was to describe sexual risk behavior among 239 couples during pregnancy and to examine the relationship of sexual risk behavior with HIV serostatus and intimate partner violence. One-third (31.8 %) of pregnant women and 20.9 % of male partners were HIV positive. HIV risk factors included lack of knowledge of partners’ HIV serostatus, unprotected sexual intercourse and multiple sexual partners. Among men, multivariate logistic regression identified awareness of HIV negative partner status, multiple sexual partners and low levels of partner violence and among women Zulu or Swati ethnicity were associated with unprotected intercourse. HIV positive concordance was associated with protected sex and in multilevel analysis of couples HIV positive status and awareness of the partner’s HIV positive status were associated with protected sex. High levels of HIV risk behaviour was found among couples during pregnancy calling for HIV risk reduction interventions.