HIV Prevention Program Addressing Multiple Sexual Partners in Mozambique Shows Positive Results

A community health worker provides counseling for HIV in Ile District, Mozambique. © 2008 Arturo Sanabria, Courtesy of Photoshare

A new article in the journal AIDS Care looks at how a social and behavior change communication (SBCC) campaign helped positively impact attitudes about multiple sexual partners (MSP) in Mozambique, a country with an estimated 11.5% HIV prevalence rate.

The authors examined a year-long national campaign that used a multimedia, integrated approach with the slogan andar fora e maningue arriscado (Stepping outside – cheating – is risky business). They found that more than 81% of the 1,427 sexually active men and women who responded to a survey could recall one or more of the campaign’s components.

But the campaign was designed to also address psychosocial factors that could play a role in changing behavior related to MSP. Two in particular are attitudes that favor MSP and the knowledge that having more than one sexual partner increases the risk of HIV infection.

Using a multivariate causal attribution analysis, the authors found that the campaign had a significant indirect impact on MSP through its negative effect on attitudes that favor MSP as well as its positive effect on knowledge and discussion of the risk of MSP.