Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Mar 27;25(6):861-3.
doi: 10.1097/QAD.0b013e32834344c9.

Age-gaps in sexual partnerships: seeing beyond 'sugar daddies'

Affiliations

Age-gaps in sexual partnerships: seeing beyond 'sugar daddies'

Miles Q Ott et al. AIDS. .

Abstract

We examine for the first time age-mixing in sexual relationships in a population with very high HIV incidence and prevalence in rural South Africa. The highest levels of age assortativity (the pairing of like with like) were casual partnerships reported by men, the lowest levels were spousal relationships reported by women. Given the age-sex distribution of HIV prevalence in this population, interventions to decrease age-gaps in spousal relationships may be effective in reducing HIV incidence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Age-gap by relationship type
(a) In male respondents. (b) In female respondents.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Anderson RM, May RM, Ng TW, Rowley JT. Age-dependent choice of sexual partners and the transmission dynamics of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Philosophical Transactions Biological Sciences. 1992;336:135–155. - PubMed
    1. Leclerc-Madlala S. Age-disparate and intergenerational sex in southern Africa: the dynamics of hypervulnerability. AIDS. 2008;22:S17–S25. - PubMed
    1. Hurt CB, Matthews DD, Calabria MS, Green KA, Adimora AA, Golin CE, Hightow-Weidman LB. Sex with older partners is associated with primary HIV infection among men who have sex with men in North Carolina. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2010;54:185–190. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kraut-Becher JR, Aral SO. Patterns of age mixing and sexually transmitted infections. Int J STD AIDS. 2006;17:378–383. - PubMed
    1. Hertog S. Heterosexual behavior patterns and the spread of HIV/AIDS: the interacting effects of rate of partner change and sexual mixing. Sex Transm Dis. 2007;34:820–828. - PubMed

Publication types