Sexual violence and reproductive health outcomes among South African female youths: a contextual analysis.
Speizer, Ilene S;
Pettifor, Audrey;
Cummings, Stirling;
Macphail, Catherine;
Kleinschmidt, Immo;
Rees, Helen V;
(2009)
Sexual violence and reproductive health outcomes among South African female youths: a contextual analysis.
American journal of public health, 99 Sup (Suppl ).
S425-S431.
ISSN 0090-0036
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.136606
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OBJECTIVES: We studied whether female youths from communities with higher sexual violence were at greater risk of negative reproductive health outcomes. METHODS: We used data from a 2003 nationally representative household survey of youths aged 15-24 years in South Africa. The key independent variable was whether a woman had ever been threatened or forced to have sex. We aggregated this variable to the community level to determine, with control for individual-level experience with violence, whether the community-level prevalence of violence was associated with HIV status and adolescent pregnancy among female, sexually experienced, never-married youths. RESULTS: Youths from communities with greater sexual violence were significantly more likely to have experienced an adolescent pregnancy or to be HIV-positive than were youths from communities experiencing lower sexual violence. Youths from communities with greater community-level violence were also less likely to have used a condom at their last sexual encounter. Individual-level violence was only associated with condom nonuse. CONCLUSIONS: Programs to reduce adolescent pregnancies and HIV risk in South Africa and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa must address sexual violence as part of effective prevention strategies.