NCJ Number
117475
Date Published
1989
Length
113 pages
Annotation
Since there is a medical consensus that controlling the spread of the AIDS epidemic will require a national effort to persuade a sizable fraction of the population to modify their sexual behavior, this chapter describes what is currently known about past and present human sexual behavior and the types of data collection needed to provide basic information from which to fashion the kind of understanding required.
Abstract
The chapter reviews the types of data on human sexual behavior that will be required to understand and predict the course of the AIDS epidemic and to design effective interventions to achieve the behavioral changes required to control it. It also describes the available data on sexual behavior in the United States, including trends in adolescent and adult sexual behavior, same-gender sex, and prostitution; the methodological and other problems that must be overcome to obtain more reliable and valid data about relevant sexual behavior in the United States; and the role of anthropological techniques in this effort. Recommendations focus on improving understanding of the sexual behaviors that spread HIV infection. A principal recommendation is that the Public Health Service support programs of social and behavioral research on human sexual behavior. Other recommendations are that data be collected to estimate the prevalence of the sexual risk-taking behaviors associated with the acquisition and spread of HIV infection in various populations, including those at higher and lower risk, and that funding be provided to support prospective longitudinal studies of sexual behavior. 400-item bibliography.