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Jaboya (“Sex for Fish”): A Qualitative Analysis of Contextual Risk Factors for Extramarital Partnerships in the Fishing Communities in Western Kenya

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Abstract

Extramarital partnerships exacerbate high HIV prevalence rates in many communities in sub-Saharan Africa. We explored contextual risk factors and suggested interventions to reduce extramarital partnerships among couples in the fishing communities on Lake Victoria, Kenya. We conducted 12 focus group discussions with 9–10 participants each (N = 118) and 16 in-depth interviews (N = 16) with fishermen and their spouses. Couples who participated were consented and separated for simultaneous gender-matched discussions/interviews. Interview topics included courtship and marriage, relationship and sexual satisfaction, extramarital relationships and how to intervene on HIV risks. Coding, analysis, and interpretation of the transcripts followed grounded theory tenets that allow analytical themes to emerge from the participants. Our results showed that extramarital partnerships were perceived to be widespread and were attributed to factors related to sexual satisfaction such as women needing more foreplay before intercourse, discrepancies in sexual desire, and boredom with the current sexual repertoire. Participants also reported that financial and sociophysical factors such as family financial support and physical separation, contributed to the formation of extramarital partnerships. Participants made suggestions for interventions that reduce extramarital partnerships to minimize HIV risks at the community, couple, and individual level. These suggestions emphasized improving community education, spousal communication, and self-evaluation for positive behavior change. Future studies can draw upon these findings as a basis for designing community-owned interventions that seek to reduce community-level HIV risk through a reduction in the number of sexual partners.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the following for their support leadership that enabled the study to be conducted: Director, Kenya Medical Research (Nairobi); Vice Chancellor, Kenyatta University (Nairobi) and; Director, Centre for Microbiology Research (Nairobi). We also thank the officials of all Beach Management Units that we worked with for their support. We would like to acknowledge the hard work by Fishermen Study staff under the leadership of Lilian Achiro, our sister projects the Couple’s Intervention Study and the Family AIDS Care and Education Services in Kisumu, Kenya. In a special way, we thank couples who volunteered to participate in the study. Lastly, we acknowledge funding support from Consortium of National Health Research (CNHR) Grant Number: RLG-09-001/026 that enabled us to implement this study.

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Correspondence to Zachary A. Kwena.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kwena, Z.A., Shisanya, C.A., Bukusi, E.A. et al. Jaboya (“Sex for Fish”): A Qualitative Analysis of Contextual Risk Factors for Extramarital Partnerships in the Fishing Communities in Western Kenya. Arch Sex Behav 46, 1877–1890 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0930-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0930-0

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