Concurrent sexual partnerships among young adults in Cape Town, South Africa: How is concurrency changing?

The debate about the role of concurrent sexual partnerships in the spread of HIV is influenced by weak/limited empirical data on concurrency.

Longitudinal data (n = 2958) were employed to examine the prevalence of individual concurrency (someone who has additional partners) and perceived partner concurrency (partner perceived to have additional partners) by population group and gender in 2005 and 2009. Fixed effects logit regression models were created to examine factors associated with changes in individual concurrency.

The prevalence of individual concurrency increased among black men (from 33% in 2005 to 39% in 2009), remained constant among black women (14%), decreased among coloured men (from 16% to 8%) and remained low among coloured women (2% in 2005 and 1% in 2009). Overall, a small decrease in perceived partner concurrency was observed. Changes in individual concurrency were positively associated with changes in perceived partner concurrency and finding employment; and negatively associated with household income.

Race and gender differences in concurrency should be taken into account in future research and HIV-prevention initiatives. High and increasing levels of concurrency within most recent partnerships among black men highlight this group as a potential focus for such efforts.