Cape Town - Limited access to food is likely to lead to risky sexual behaviour such as unprotected and transactional sex, new research suggests. The study found that poor people who live in urban areas and have limited access to food thereby put themselves at greater risk of contracting HIV/Aids.
The findings, published in the current issue of Journal of the International Aids Society, stated food insecurity was reported to be a strong contributor to risky sexual practices among the urban poor living with HIV/Aids.
Study participants, mainly heterosexual females and men sleeping with men (MSM), described engaging in transactional sex for food or money, often during the times of destitution. Many homeless respondents also explained how food insecurity led them to engage in unprotected sex despite their knowledge of the risks and their desire to practice safe sex.
Most engaged in risky behaviour largely because the need to obtain food in the short term superseded the desire to use protection.
The research was conducted by the University of California in the US, and is of interest to South Africa which experiences similar circumstances of urban poor who grapple with food insecurity and HIV/Aids exposure daily.
Of almost 1 billion people in developing countries that are undernourished, over 200 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.
Despite the political and economic advances seen since the advent of democracy two decades ago, the country remains plagued by poverty and unemployment which drives food insecurity.
Food insecurity is defined as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate, safe foods, or the inability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
In the study, participants described experiencing periods of insufficient food, long-term struggles with poor quality diets and having to obtain food using “personally and socially unacceptable strategies”.
About two-thirds of men surveyed described having sexual relationships with other men while most females had heterosexual relationships.
They described transactional sex unfavourably, with some admitting that they engaged in sex with casual partners just to get food.
Most participants had lived through periods of homelessness, and often described experiencing severe food insecurity and hunger during such periods.
While many reported that they preferred to use protection during sex and were able to negotiate safe sex with their primary and long-term partners, during times of food insecurity this was not always the case.
Both MSM and females engaging in sex work and unplanned opportunistic encounters explained how their safety had sometimes been compromised during these engagements.
Lead researcher Henry Whittle said the latest data concurred with previous research that demonstrated that food insecurity contributed to transactional and unprotected sex among the urban poor.
“Our findings emphasise the need to address food insecurity as part of public health and social intervention efforts against HIV/Aids, especially in regions of relatively concentrated urban poverty and destitution.
“This indicates a need for interventions addressing food insecurity and other forms of financial deprivation to complement purely educational programmes against risky sex,” he wrote.
Cape Argus
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