The use of the female condom by women in Brazil participating in HIV prevention education sessions El uso del condón femenino por mujeres en Brasil que participan en sesiones educativas sobre el VIH

• Main Authors: Elisabeth Meloni Vieira, Alcyone Artioli Machado, Geraldo Duarte, Regina Helena Brito de Souza, Antonio Luis Rodrigues Junior
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2004
• Subjects: Condoms; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; HIV infections; sexually transmitted diseases; safe sex; Brazil; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/70ebeefe34fa40a59d38e97ef502016f

OBJECTIVES: To study HIV-positive women and women at risk of becoming infected with HIV who attended HIV prevention education group sessions at a university hospital in Bra-zil and to compare the use of the female condom and the male condom by these two groups of women. METHODS: The study subjects were 165 women participating in HIV prevention education group sessions at the Medical School Hospital of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo, in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Women could be enrolled in the study from August 2000 to June 2001, and the follow-up observation time period was from August 2000 to July 2001. Male condoms and female condoms were freely distributed to all the participants at the end of each educational session and also at the end of each follow-up visit that the participants made. Each woman took part in an initial interview and was asked to return monthly. At each follow-up visit an additional short interview was carried out in order to investigate use of the male condom and of the female condom. Variables that were examined for the study included age, education, ethnic group, marital or relationship status, number of children, the women's use of male condoms and female condoms, commercial sex (whether the women had ever had sex in exchange for money, gifts, or favors), and previous knowledge of the female condom. RESULTS: The 165 women studied fell into the following three categories: 132 of them (80.0%) were HIV-positive, 26 of them (15.8%) had a sexually transmitted disease (STD) other than HIV and did not have an HIV-positive partner, and 7 of them (4.2%) had an HIV-positive partner but did not have HIV or any other STD. The women ranged in age from 15 to 64 years, with a mean of 30.3 years. Of the women in the study, 69.7% of them were married or were cohabitating, and 90.9% of them had a sexual partner. Just over two-thirds of the women had seven years of formal schooling or less. Out of 163 women, a total of 31 of them (19.0%) had never used the male condom ...