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RELIGION, HIV/AIDS AND SEXUAL RISK-TAKING AMONG MEN IN GHANA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2010

STEPHEN OBENG GYIMAH ,
ERIC Y. TENKORANG ,
BAFFOUR K. TAKYI ,
JONES ADJEI  and
GABRIEL FOSU
STEPHEN OBENG GYIMAH
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada African Population & Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya
ERIC Y. TENKORANG
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
BAFFOUR K. TAKYI
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA
JONES ADJEI
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
GABRIEL FOSU
Affiliation:
Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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Summary

Although a growing body of research has linked religious involvement with HIV/AIDS protective behaviour in Africa, the focus has mainly been on women. Given the patriarchal nature of African culture, this paper argues for the inclusion of men, a critical group whose sexual behaviours have increasingly been linked to the spread and sustenance of the virus in the region. Drawing on different theoretical discourses and using data from the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, this paper examines how religious affiliation influences men's risky sexual behaviours. While the results from the bivariate analysis suggested that Muslims and Traditionalists were significantly less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour compared with Christians, those differences disappeared once socioeconomic variables were controlled, rendering support for the selectivity thesis. This finding could benefit programmatic and policy formulation regarding AIDS prevention in Ghana.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , July 2010 , pp. 531 - 547
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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