Abstract
Qualitative studies and polling data from sub-Saharan Africa indicate that many individuals may mistakenly believe that male circumcision directly protects women from contracting HIV. This study examines whether individuals who learn that male circumcision reduces female-to-male HIV transmission also erroneously infer a reduction in direct male-to-female transmission risk (i.e. from an HIV-positive man to an uninfected woman). We used data on Malawian men (n = 917) randomized to receive information about voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) and HIV risk in 2008 and a random sample of their wives (n = 418). We found that 72 % of men and 82 % of women who believed that male circumcision reduces HIV risk for men also believed that it reduces HIV risk for women. Regression analyses indicated that men randomly assigned to receive information about the protective benefits of circumcision were more likely to adopt the erroneous beliefs, and that the underlying mechanism was the formation of the belief that male circumcision reduces HIV risk for men. The results suggest the need for VMMC campaigns to make explicit that male circumcision does not directly protect women from HIV-infection.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Martin Abel, Nicola Branson, Arden Finn, David Maughan-Brown, Rebecca Maughan-Brown, Elizabeth Gummerson, Edward Okeke, and three anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. Brendan Maughan-Brown is grateful for funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research for his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Atheendar S. Venkataramani is grateful to the Massachusetts General Hospital Global Primary Care Program for travel and research support. We acknowledge the extensive contributions of the field team including James Amani, Sheena Kayira, Collins Kwizombe, Denise Matthijsse, Ernest Mlenga, and Christopher Nyirenda. We also thank assistance from Kondwani Chidziwisano, Jessica Kraft, Erica Marks, Julie Moran, Jason Stanley, and Kondwani Tomoko. Funding for this study was provided by Michigan Center for Demography of Aging (MiCDA), OVPR and Rackham at the University of Michigan as well as the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Godlonton and Thornton gratefully acknowledge use of the services and facilities of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, funded by NICHD Center Grant R24.
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Maughan-Brown, B., Godlonton, S., Thornton, R. et al. What Do People Actually Learn from Public Health Campaigns? Incorrect Inferences About Male Circumcision and Female HIV Infection Risk Among Men and Women in Malawi. AIDS Behav 19, 1170–1177 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-014-0882-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-014-0882-0