Special Collection 1 - Article 13 | Pages 397-438
Talking about AIDS: The influence of communication networks on individual risk perceptions of HIV/AIDS infection and favored protective behaviors in South Nyanza District, Kenya
| Date received: | 22 Jan 2003 |
| Date published: | 19 Sep 2003 |
| Word count: | 9400 |
| Keywords: | AIDS/HIV, communication networks, Kenya, prevention, risk behaviors |
| DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2003.S1.13 |
Abstract
This paper explores the significance of social relationships to two important stages in the process of sexual behavioral change in response to increased HIV/AIDS risk in rural Africa: the perceived risk of becoming HIV-infected through unprotected sexual intercourse and the preferred methods of protection either through sexual fidelity, or through condom use. The empirical analyses are based on cross-sectional data from the 'Kenyan Diffusion and Ideational Change Project' (KDICP) which provides information about AIDS-related, ego-centered communication networks of Kenyan men and women.
The results show that perceived risks, as well as preferred methods of protection against HIV-infection, depend in general on the prevailing perceptions and favored protective methods within personal communication networks. However, different influential network properties can be found. The risk-perceptions of women are shaped by strong relationships and cohesive network structures. Male's risk perception depends more on the number of risk-perceivers in their communication networks. Heterogeneous relationships of various kinds are influential on women's and men's probability of favoring sexual faithfulness as a method of protection against HIV-infection.
Author's Affiliation
Christoph Buehler - Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Germany
Hans-Peter Kohler - University of Pennsylvania, United States of America
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