Migration, mobility and sexual risk behavior in Mumbai, India: mobile men with non-residential wife show increased risk

AIDS Behav. 2009 Oct;13(5):921-7. doi: 10.1007/s10461-009-9564-8. Epub 2009 Apr 25.

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship of migration and mobility of husband and wife to sexual risk behaviors among married men living in economically marginal communities in Mumbai, India. Non-migrant men reported significantly more often than the migrant men that they had one or more sex partners other than their wives in the last year. Further, men with occupational mobility reported significantly more often than the men who were not mobile that they had one or more non-spousal sexual partners in the last 1 year. Married men living in Mumbai with wives residing in their area of origin and who reported occupational mobility had the highest sexual risk behaviors, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and migration. Interventions aimed at prevention of HIV among men require special focus on both migrant and non-migrant men with greater occupational mobility, with particular emphasis on migrant men whose wives have remained in their pre-migration home areas.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Extramarital Relations
  • Family Characteristics
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology*
  • HIV Infections / transmission
  • Humans
  • India / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Risk Factors
  • Risk-Taking*
  • Sexual Behavior / statistics & numerical data*
  • Sexual Partners
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases / transmission
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Spouses
  • Transients and Migrants / psychology
  • Transients and Migrants / statistics & numerical data*
  • Travel
  • Urban Population