An evaluation of the relationships between poverty and HIV/AIDS in Kwa-Langa, Cape Town

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study sets out to establish and explain the empirical link between HIV/AIDS andpoverty using data collected in Kwa-Langa, Cape Town, South African. Analysis isrestricted to women of reproductive age (15 – 49 years). The results indicate an increasedrisk of HIV infection among the poor, due to poverty-related characteristics of loweducation and low knowledge of the means of avoiding HIV infection, as opposed to thenon-poor. Moreover, the poor and the less educated were found to be more likely not touse condoms than the non-poor. The results do not, however, provide the reasons forthese relations and as such further research is required. One possible explanation wasfinancial dependence on their partners, as it was found those women who received moneyfrom their partners, as well as those who came from households where hunger was acommon phenomenon, were more likely not to use condoms because their partnersdisliked condoms, than those who did not receive money from their partners. The resultsalso hinted at the intricacy of the poverty-HIV/AIDS relationship, so that it was not onlylow socio-economic status that increased susceptibility to HIV infection but also highsocio-economic status.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University