Abstract
This paper examines the relationship of migration and mobility of husband and wife to sexual risk behaviors among married men living in economically marginal communities in Mumbai, India. Non-migrant men reported significantly more often than the migrant men that they had one or more sex partners other than their wives in the last year. Further, men with occupational mobility reported significantly more often than the men who were not mobile that they had one or more non-spousal sexual partners in the last 1 year. Married men living in Mumbai with wives residing in their area of origin and who reported occupational mobility had the highest sexual risk behaviors, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and migration. Interventions aimed at prevention of HIV among men require special focus on both migrant and non-migrant men with greater occupational mobility, with particular emphasis on migrant men whose wives have remained in their pre-migration home areas.
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Acknowledgments
The research on which this paper is based was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, “Male Sexual Concerns and Prevention of HIV/STD in India” (RO1-MH64875) and a supplement, “Assessing Women’s HIV/STD Risk in Marriage in India” funded by the Office of AIDS Research of the National Institutes of Health. The authors are indebted to the field and office staff of the RISHTA project at the International Institute for Population Sciences for their hard work and commitment to the collection of quality data under difficult circumstances. We also appreciate the careful review and inputs of Dr. Pertti J. Pelto and Dr. Sarah Hawkes in earlier drafts of this paper.
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Saggurti, N., Schensul, S.L. & Verma, R.K. Migration, Mobility and Sexual Risk Behavior in Mumbai, India: Mobile Men with Non-Residential Wife Show Increased Risk. AIDS Behav 13, 921–927 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-009-9564-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-009-9564-8