Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Risk in Kenya

Annie Dude, University of Chicago

In Kenya, the majority of adults infected with HIV are women. In other settings, women who have been abused by their sexual partners are more likely to report infection with HIV or another STI, report more sexual partners, and are less likely to use condoms. Intimate partner violence, therefore, may represent a significant barrier to behavior change and HIV prevention in Kenya. I utilize data from 1,717 women aged 15-49 from the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey to show that past experience of emotional violence is significantly associated with an increased likelihood that a woman is infected with HIV (OR=1.62, p=.024). Experiences of physical and sexual violence, however, are not significantly associated with HIV risk. While these results add to the evidence that intimate partner violence is positively associated with HIV, they also indicate that all types of abuse may not have the same effect on disease risk.