Paying to Prevent HIV Infection in Young Women? [Comment]

Citation

Pettifor, Audrey E.; McCoy, Sandra I.; & Padian, Nancy S. (2012). Paying to Prevent HIV Infection in Young Women? [Comment]. Lancet, 379(9823), 1280-1282.

Abstract

Between a quarter and a third of young women in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV by the time they reach their early 20s. Structural factors such as poor education, poverty, and gender and power inequalities are important determinants of young women's vulnerability to HIV infection.1, 2 However, until now, no rigorously assessed intervention targeting this group has significantly reduced HIV infection and no intervention that targets structural factors has directly affected HIV infection.3, 4 In The Lancet, Sarah Baird and colleagues5 report the results of a randomised controlled trial done with adolescent girls in rural Malawi, examining the effects of a cash transfer programme on risk of HIV infection. The investigators report that schoolgirls who received monthly cash payments of varying amounts were significantly less likely than girls who did not receive payments to be infected with HIV (1·2% vs 3·0%; OR 0·36, 95% CI 0·14–0·91) and HSV-2 (0·7% vs 3·0%; OR 0·24, 0·09–0·65), to have an older male partner (0·5% vs 2·5%; OR 0·20, 0·07–0·59), and to have sexual intercourse once per week (3·0% vs 6·5%; OR 0·46, 0·26–0·82) at follow-up (18 months for biological outcomes and 12 months for behavioural outcomes).

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60036-1

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2012

Journal Title

Lancet

Author(s)

Pettifor, Audrey E.
McCoy, Sandra I.
Padian, Nancy S.

ORCiD

Pettifor - 0000-0002-3387-0817