Recently formed age-disparate partnerships are associated with elevated HIV incidence among young women in South Africa
Cross-sectional and cohort studies draw different conclusions on whether age-disparate partnerships increase HIV-acquisition risk for young women. We investigated whether age-disparities were associated with HIV-infection risk early in relationships. This could result in the exclusion of women who seroconverted during high-risk age-disparate partnerships from cohort studies of HIV-incidence – which exclude HIV-positive women – and explain null findings in these studies. We used data on 15–24 year-old, HIV-negative women in heterosexual partnerships (N=830) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The association between age-disparate partnering (i.e., male partner ≥5 years older) and subsequent HIV-seroconversion was assessed using Cox hazard models. We examined heterogeneity in HIV-acquisition risk by duration of partnership (defined by quartiles) at cohort enrolment.
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