HIV Risky Sexual Behaviors and HIV Infection Among Immigrants: A Cross-Sectional Study in Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

This study aimed to examine risky sexual behavior, its associated factors and HIV infection among immigrants. A participatory cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1187 immigrants at the National Immigrant Support Centre, in Lisbon (52.2% female; 34.0% Africans, 33.8% Brazilians, 32.2% Eastern Europeans). About 38% of participants reported ≥2 sexual partners in the previous year, 16.2% both regular and occasional sexual partners (last 12 months), 33.1% inconsistent condom use with occasional partners, and 64% no condom use in the last sexual intercourse. Unprotected sex in the last sexual intercourse was more likely among women, Africans, those older, with elementary education, those married and those who didn’t receive free condoms in the previous year. No condom use was less likely among those having only occasional sexual partners and both regular and occasional sexual partners. One third of participants had never been tested for HIV. Those never tested reported more frequently inconsistent condom use than those ever tested. Overall, 2.0% reported being HIV positive (2.5% of men; 4.4% of Africans); 4.3% admitted having a STI in previous year. HIV-positive immigrants reported high-risk sexual behaviors. Tailored interventions to promote awareness of HIV serostatus among immigrants as well as culturally adapted risk reduction strategies should be strengthened.

HIV, Other Blood-Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections amongst Expatriates and Travellers to Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review

“…Frequency, experience or intention to purchase or engage sex worker services in the destination country was reported in just under half of studies [29,31,54,57,58,62,63,73,74,75]. Arriving in the travel destination without a partner, participating in unprotected sex and having multiple sexual partners were all factors documented in other studies [22,38,76,77], as was the frequent purchasing of sex worker services and “sex tourism” industry overseas [30,78]. …”

A Cross-Sectional Study on Selected Correlates of High risk Sexual Behavior in Polish Migrants Resident in the United Kingdom

“…A self-administered questionnaire was designed with the use of a literature review [7,8,9,12,13]. It contained 18 questions written in the Polish language that queried participants on the following:

socio-demographic: age; gender; education level (“primary school”, “high school”, “college”, “university”, “post-graduate”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into “university and above level”, and “below university level”); marital status (“single”, “married”, “cohabitation”, “divorced”, “widowed”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into “single” i.e., single/divorced/widowed and “non-single”, i.e., married/cohabitation); religion (“catholic”, “other religion”, “atheist”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into “religious”, i.e., catholic/other religion and atheist); sexual orientation (“heterosexual”, “homosexual”, “bisexual”, “asexual”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into “men who have sex with men (MSM)” and “other sexual orientation”); professional situation (“employed part-time”, “employed full-time”, “student”, “unemployed” and “retired”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into “non-employed”, i.e., student/unemployed/ retired and “employed”, i.e., employed part-time/employed full-time); length of stay in the UK (in years: “≤2 years”, “3–5 years”, “6–8 years”, “≥8 years”; for analysis, these options were dichotomized into ≤2 years/>2 years); and place of residence in Poland (“town”, “village”);

risky sexual behavior in Poland in the past 12 months during the before-migration period and in the UK in the past 12 months (any unprotected sexual contact: with a casual partner; after the use of alcohol, i.e., having sex while feeling drunk; after the use of recreational drugs; or having multiple sexual partners).

determinants of risky sexual behaviors:

personal: self-esteem measured by the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES) [21].

…”

HIV Risks in Sexual Networks of Heterosexual Men in South Africa

“…Finally, a total of 29 studies were identified to include studies only focusing on sexual networks or sexual partnerships. Twenty-three studies were ineligible for inclusion following secondary full article screening because they did not include confirmed cases of HIV sexual networks and / specific data to heterosexual men or no primary outcome of this study (Abrahams & Jewkes, 2012;Barta, Tennen, & Kiene, 2010;Beyeza-Kashesya et al, 2011;Brouwer et al, 2006;Chakrapani, Newman, Shunmugam, & Dubrow, 2010;Chen et al, 2015;De Santis, Gonzalez-Guarda, & Vasquez, 2012;Dhont et al, 2010;Dias, Marques, Gama, & Martins, 2014;Doherty, Schoenbach, & Adimora, 2009;Eaton et al, 2014;Eshleman et al, 2011;Floyd et al, 2008;Kibira, Nansubuga, Tumwesigye, Atuyambe, & Makumbi, 2014;Lin et al, 2012;Lingappa et al, 2009;Marti-Pastor et al, 2015;Patterson et al, 2012;Sgarbi et al, 2015;Simoni, Pantalone, Plummer, & Huang, 2007;Wenzel et al, 2012;Zhussupov, McNutt, Gilbert, Terlikbayeva, & El-Bassel, 2015). We identified six articles to include in our final analysis ( Figure 1) which met our inclusion criteria.…”