Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Scant research has examined factors associated with condom use among internally displaced women in postdisaster settings, such as in postearthquake Haiti. The study objective was to examine social ecological factors associated with consistent condom use among internally displaced women in postearthquake Haiti.
Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2012 with a peer-driven recruitment sample of internally displaced women in Leogane, Haiti. Peer health workers administered tablet-based structured interviews to a convenience sample of 175 internally displaced women.
Results The 128 participants who reported being sexually active in the last 4 weeks were included in the analyses. Two-thirds (65.2%) reported consistent condom use in the last month. In multivariate logistic regression analyses controlled for age and income, participants that reported sex work, depression, higher number of sex partners and shorter relationship duration had lower odds of consistent condom use in the past month. Participants who reported no experiences of intimate partner violence, lower self-rated health, higher sexual relationship power and more meals per day, had a higher likelihood of reporting consistent condom use.
Conclusions This research provides the first assessment of contextual factors associated with consistent condom use among women displaced from a natural disaster such as Haiti's 2010 earthquake. Findings demonstrate the importance of social ecological approaches to understand intrapersonal (eg, sex work and depression), interpersonal (eg, relationship power, intimate partner violence and relationship duration) and structural (eg, food insecurity) factors associated with internally displaced women's condom use. Results can inform future sexual health research and interventions in international disaster contexts.
Trial registration number NCT01492829, pre-results.
- CONDOMS
- DEVELOPING WORLD
- WOMEN
- GENDER
- HETEROSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
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Footnotes
Handling editor Jackie A Cassell
Contributors CL and CD conceptualised the study design and conducted data collection. CL led the writing and development of this manuscript. YW conducted data analysis.
Funding This work was supported by a Grand Challenges Canada Rising Star in Global Health Award (grant number 0016-01-04-01-01) and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Planning Grant (grant number 2011-255165).
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada (WCH REB #: 2011-0033-E).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.