Characterizing male sexual partners of adolescent girls and young women in Mozambique: Key findings.

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) ages 15–24 have been identified as a population vulnerable to HIV. Less than half of AGYW living with HIV know their HIV status and treatment uptake and viral suppression rates among adolescents and young people especially females are extremely low globally. AGYW are at risk of acquiring HIV predominantly through sexual transmission from HIV-positive male partners. To stop AGYW from acquiring HIV one strategy is to prevent HIV among their male sexual partners and reduce the infectiousness of those partners who are HIV-positive. However little is known globally about the characteristics of AGYW’s sexual partners which constrains efforts to reach them with HIV services and thus limits efforts to ultimately reduce HIV prevalence among them. The United States President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Determined Resilient Empowered AIDS-free Mentored and Safe Initiative has called on U.S. Government missions overseas to address this knowledge gap through studies to characterize male sexual partners. USAID/Mozambique asked MEASURE Evaluation to undertake a study that would provide insights into the characteristics of men who have recently engaged in sexual activity with AGYW the relationship dynamics and factors that influence men’s engagement with HIV and AIDS prevention and care services. This study had three research questions: 1) Who are the sexual partners of AGYW? 2) Is sexual risk-taking behavior (i.e. multiple recent sexual partners and unprotected sex) among AGYW and their male partners associated with certain sexual partner characteristics (e.g. age education employment income or other factors)? 3) To what extent are male sexual partners of AGYW using/willing to use different types of HIV and AIDS services?