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Food insecurity linked to reduced odds of condom use for women in Brazil

April 10th, 2012

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Alexander Tsai of Harvard University, Cambridge, and colleagues show that in sexually active women in Brazil severe food insecurity with hunger was positively associated with symptoms potentially indicative of sexually transmitted infection and with reduced odds of condom use.

The authors say: "Our findings suggest that interventions targeting food insecurity may have beneficial implications for HIV prevention. Individual-level cognitive and/or behavioral interventions targeting HIV risk avoidance or risk reduction behaviors are likely to be less than optimally effective if these structural factors are not also taken into account."

More information:
Tsai AC, Hung KJ, Weiser SD (2012) Is Food Insecurity Associated with HIV Risk? Cross-Sectional Evidence from Sexually Active Women in Brazil. PLoS Med 9(4): e1001203. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001203

Provided by Public Library of Science

Citation: Food insecurity linked to reduced odds of condom use for women in Brazil (2012, April 10) retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://sciencex.com/wire-news/95534041/food-insecurity-linked-to-reduced-odds-of-condom-use-for-women-i.html

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