HIV prevalence is strongly associated with geographical variations in male circumcision and foreskin cutting in Papua New Guinea: an ecological study

MacLaren, David J., McBride, W. John H., Kelly, Gerard C., Muller, Reinhold, Tommbe, Rachael, Kaldor, John M., and Vallely, Andrew J. (2015) HIV prevalence is strongly associated with geographical variations in male circumcision and foreskin cutting in Papua New Guinea: an ecological study. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 91. pp. 502-505.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

Download (3MB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2014-...
 
7
1138


Abstract

Objective: To examine the correlation between HIV prevalence and male circumcision and other foreskin cutting practices across the four regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Design: An ecological substudy using unique data from an interdisciplinary research programme to evaluate the acceptability, sociocultural context and public health impact of male circumcision for HIV prevention in PNG.

Methods: Published data describing (a) self-reported circumcision status by region from the 'Acceptability and Feasibility of Male Circumcision for HIV prevention in PNG' study and (b) HIV prevalence by region from PNG National Department of Health were used to correlate male circumcision and other foreskin cutting practices and HIV prevalence. Maps were constructed to visually represent variations across the four regions of PNG.

Results: Regions of PNG with the highest HIV prevalence had the lowest prevalence of male circumcision and other forms of foreskin cutting and vice versa. Male circumcision and dorsal longitudinal cuts were strongly associated with HIV prevalence and able to explain 99 % of the observed geographical variability in HIV prevalence in PNG (p<0.01).

Conclusions: The regional prevalence of HIV infection in PNG appears to be closely correlated with the regional distribution of male circumcision and dorsal longitudinal foreskin cuts. Further research is warranted to investigate causality of this correlation as well as the potential of dorsal longitudinal cuts to confer protection against HIV acquisition in heterosexual men.

Item ID: 40159
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1472-3263
Related URLs:
Additional Information:

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.

A comment on this article followed by a reply from the original authors has been published and can be accessed from the link in the Related URLs field.

Funders: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
Projects and Grants: NHMRC Project Grant 601003, AusAID Australian Development Research Award 44743
Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2015 03:46
FoR Codes: 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111715 Pacific Peoples Health @ 50%
11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) > 920499 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) not elsewhere classified @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 1138
Last 12 Months: 96
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page