Male Sexual Partners of Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Haiti: A Survey of HIV Risk Behavior, HIV Service Use, and Partner Violence

The goal of this study was to support the achievement of PEPFAR’s 95-95-95 targets by providing a robust understanding of HIV sexual risk behavior, HIV testing, and HIV treatment from the perspective of adult male sexual partners of AGYW in Haiti. The research objectives were to: • Describe and identify modifiable determinants of HIV risk behavior and risky sexual partnerships. • Describe normative beliefs about HIV risk behavior, sexual partnerships, and HIV service use and their influence on personal HIV risk behavior. • Describe current HIV service use and preferences for HIV testing, determinants of HIV testing uptake, and, among HIV-positive participants, ART treatment uptake and adherence. A cross-sectional study was conducted to capture descriptive information among male sexual partners of AGYW. The study sites were the capital city of Port-au-Prince (PaP), in the south, and the city of St. Marc, in the Artibonite department (northern part of the country). These sites were purposely selected from the four active DREAMS intervention cities island-wide to represent the unique context of an urban city and one of two sites in the department of the Artibonite. A social and behavioral survey was applied to capture key sexual risk behaviors, social norms, and sexual relationship dynamics. In addition to general measures of sexual risk behavior (e.g., age of sexual debut, number of new sexual partners in the previous 12 months), a partnerships grid detailing information for up to three sexual partners in the previous 12 months was included. The first sexual partner discussed was the most recent AGYW. Psychosocial scales to measure important constructs were selected from established measures.