Correlates of active sexual life among the ever married Indian women

This analysis presents the major demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors which are more responsible for active sexual life among the Indian ever married women. Using the NFHS-3 dataset for nationally representative samples of women. These bahavioural pattern are relevant to birth and pregnancy rates as well as the incidence of STI, including HIV (the virus that cause AIDS).
The analysis is done on the based on the age group 35 and above age groups as in the lower age groups it is assumed that sexual activity is high among the couples. The data is restricted to married women who haven’t give birth in the last two months from the date of interview and women whose husband lives with her.
This study examines the contextual, household wealth, gender empowerment, socio-economic and demographic factors responsible for better sexual health.
Logistic regression shows that place of residence, caste, religion, wealth status, media exposure, presence of other wife and presence of son and daughter more than 15 years and perceives degree of empowerment are important predictors of sexual behaviour.
Such finding suggests that sexual behaviour is embedded in local norms and values specific to different geographical areas. Therefore sexual health research and programs should take into these locally patterns cultures seriously.