Unsafe Sexual Practices among HIV Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Chanthaburi

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the behaviors and influential factors associated with unsafe sex among HIV patients who received antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in Chanthaburi province. The samples were HIV patients attending all 12 public hospitals in the province who had received ARV for more than 6 months and willing to participat in the study. Quota sampling was use to obtain sample patients proportinal to the number of HIV cases at each hospital until the sample size of 374 cases was obtained. Data were collected using a set of questionnaire; and were analysed by using Chi-square test and logistic regression. Of all the 374 patients interviewed, 52.9% were male and 47.1% were female; and 51.3% of them were with the age range of 35-44 years. Majority of samples had primary education (65.2%), were maried (64.7%), were employees (48.9%), and had income equal to or less than 4,000 baht. Unsafe sexual practices were reported among 16.6% of the samples (95%CI= 13.2- 20.7). Statistical analysis identified 9 factors to be significantly associated with unsafe sex, which included age, education level, income, alcoholic drinking, health inprovement after taking ARVs, frequency of sexual intercourse, sex preference, number of sex partners and frequent visits to entertainment places at night (p<0.05). With logistic regression analysis, it was confirmed that only 2 factors were associated with unsafe sexual practice among the samples: alcohol drinking and health improvement after receiving ARVs.