At Risk or Not? Susceptibility Perceptions of Women Using Family Planning Services in an AIDS Epicenter

Studies using in-depth qualitative interviews have informed us about how women construct HIV/STD risk perception, based on their propensity to assess their own risk in terms of their partners' behaviors and characteristics and to view their partners as safe and trustworthy. In this study, conducted among 360 family planning clients recruited for an HIV/STD preventive intervention, we examined the perceptions of women who feel susceptible to HIV/STDs as well as those of women who feel safe from the threat of infection or who resolved earlier feelings of vulnerability. We found that women who feel susceptible accurately identify the factors that place them at risk: failure to practice condom-protected sexual intercourse and risky partners. Being diagnosed with an STD was an important trigger for the perception of personal vulnerability. Getting a negative HIV test result was the most common means of resolving perceptions of risk from the past. In logistic regression analyses of the behavioral predictors of perceived susceptibility and of a change in perception, the factors women identified were found to be significant.