Title: The implications of early marriage for HIV / AIDS policy.

POPLINE Document Number: 276683

Author(s):

Bruce J
Clark S

Source citation:

New York, New York, Population Council, 2004. 9 p. (Brief)

Abstract:

In the past decade, policy attention has turned toward adolescent reproductive health and social development issues. During that same decade, women came to comprise half of those infected with HIV/AIDS. In some parts of the world, most notably sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence rates among young women aged 15–24 outpace those of men in that age group by two to eight times. Of substantial consequence, yet largely ignored, is the fact that the majority of sexually active girls aged 15–19 in developing countries are married, and these married adolescent girls tend to have higher rates of HIV infection than their sexually active, unmarried peers. Thus married adolescent girls not only represent a sizeable fraction of adolescents at risk, but they also experience some of the highest rates of HIV prevalence of any group. Nonetheless, married adolescents have been marginal in adolescent HIV/AIDS policies and programmes and have not been the central subjects for programmes aimed at adult married women. It is time—indeed past time—to give substantially greater attention to the role that early marriage plays in potentially exposing girls and young women to severe reproductive health risks, including HIV. Protecting these young women may not only serve to help prevent the disease from spreading from “high-risk” groups to the general population in their own generation, but also to the next generation by reducing mother-to-child-transmission among this most intensive childbearing group. (excerpt)

Keywords:

Developing Countries
Critique
Adolescents, Female
Currently Married
Child Marriage
HIV Prevention
AIDS Prevention
Gender Issues
Sex Behavior
Risk Factors
Health Policy
Adolescents
Youth
Age Factors
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Marital Status
Nuptiality
Marriage Patterns
Marriage
HIV Infections
Viral Diseases
Diseases
AIDS
Behavior
Biology
Policy