Gender, power, and susceptibility to STDs/HIV in India

描述(由申请者提供)：研究人员和项目策划者 开始认识到性别不平等对妇女生殖的影响 健康，包括妇女对艾滋病毒和其他性传播疾病的易感性 感染(STI)。基于性别的权力可能会影响女性的 对性传播感染的易感性，将其决策权限制在 关系，包括关于使用障碍方法的决策，由 限制他们获得信息和卫生服务，在许多情况下 其他方式。因此，为了有效，性传播感染的预防工作必须解决 基于性别的权力。然而，尽管对这种影响的研究越来越多 虽然基于性别的权力对妇女生殖健康的影响不大，但仍然存在严重差距， 包括需要在一级审查基于性别的权力 个人、夫妇、社区和社会以及对经验数据的需要 将性别权力的可修改方面与艾滋病毒和艾滋病的易感性联系起来 性传播疾病。我们的项目“印度的性别、权力和对艾滋病毒/性传播感染的易感性，” 将填补这些和其他差距。建立在形成性定性研究的基础上， 我们将在班加罗尔招募670名已婚妇女和她们的丈夫， 印度，并跟踪他们一年以确定可修改的方面 基于性别的权力与一系列艾滋病毒/性传播感染易感性结果有关。 在这个定量部分之后，我们将进行研究后的定性 研究(焦点小组和深入访谈)，以阐明以下结果 定量分析。我们的目标是描述女性的力量和 确定基于性别的权力的各个方面(包括男性的观点和 做法)与：对艾滋病毒和性传播感染的易感性；选择， 使用并在咨询后继续使用男用和女用避孕套； 性传播感染和艾滋病毒(在那些愿意检测这些结果的人中)。 根据我们的结果，我们还将识别出 旨在增强妇女权力的因地制宜的干预措施(例如， 增强妇女的经济权力或防止基于性别的暴力)和 推广物理或化学屏障方法(包括设计 教育/咨询部分和招聘战略)。作为这项工作的一部分 后一个目标，我们将确定愿意 接受艾滋病毒和性传播感染检测，并将确定特征，包括 与基于性别的权力有关，那些拒绝接受这种测试的人。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Researchers and program planners have begun to recognize the influence of gender inequities on women's reproductive health, including women's susceptibility to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Gender-based power is likely to influence women's susceptibility to STIs by limiting their decision-making power within relationships, including decision-making regarding use of barrier methods, by constraining their access to information and health services, and in numerous other ways. Thus, in order to be effective, STI prevention efforts must address gender-based power. However, despite a growing body of research on the effect of gender-based power on women's reproductive health, critical gaps remain, including the need to examine gender-based power at the level of the individual, couple, community and society and the need for empirical data linking modifiable aspects of gender-based power to susceptibility to HIV and STIs. Our project, "Gender, power, and susceptibility to HIV/STIs in India," will address these and other gaps. Building on formative qualitative research, we will recruit a cohort of 670 married women and their husbands in Bangalore, India, and follow them for one year to identify modifiable aspects of gender-based power associated with a range of HIV/STI susceptibility outcomes. After this quantitative component, we will conduct post- study qualitative research (focus groups and in-depth interviews) to illuminate the results of the quantitative analyses. Our goals are to characterize women's power and identify aspects of gender-based power (including men's perspectives and practices) that are associated with: susceptibility to HIV and STIs; choice, use, and continued use, after counseling, of male and female condoms; and infection with STIs and HIV (among those willing to test for these outcomes). Based on our results, we will also identify the characteristics of context-appropriate interventions aimed at enhancing women's power (e.g., enhancing women's economic power or preventing gender-based violence) and those that promote physical or chemical barrier methods (including the design of education/counseling components and recruitment strategies). As part of this latter aim, we will determine the proportion of individuals who are willing to undergo HIV and STI testing and will identify characteristics, including those related to gender-based power, of those who decline to undergo such testing.