Sexual health of young people with perinatal HIV and HIV negative young people in England.

• Main Authors: Ali Judd, Caroline Foster, Lindsay C Thompson, Kate Sturgeon, Marthe Le Prevost, Eva Jungmann, Katie Rowson, Hannah Castro, Diana M Gibb, Adolescents and Adults Living with Perinatal HIV (AALPHI) Steering Committee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205597

As adolescents with perinatal HIV (PHIV) survive into adulthood, gaining insight into sexual behaviour and risk-taking is important. Between 2013-2015, 296 PHIV aged 13-21 years and 96 HIV negative affected adolescents (13-23 years) were recruited to the Adolescents and Adults Living with Perinatal HIV (AALPHI) cohort in England. Sexual health data were collected through computer-assisted self-interview questionnaires. Quality of life and household deprivation were also measured. T-tests compared means, and χ2 proportions; logistic regression examined predictors of ever having sex. 120(41%) PHIV and 31(32%) HIV- young people were male, 254(86%) and 70(73%) were black, median age 16 [IQR 15,18] and 16 [14,18] years respectively. 77(26%) PHIV had a previous AIDS diagnosis. 93(32%) PHIV and 38(40%) HIV- had ever had sex; median number of partners was 3 [1,6] and 4 [1,6] respectively. 54 (41%) of 131 young people who were sexually active reported not always using condoms, including 32% (30/93) of PHIV. In multivariable analysis, older age, male sex, worse deprivation score, worse quality of life, and alcohol and/or drugs were associated with ever having sex, but not HIV status. 12/30 PHIV reporting unprotected sex had at least one HIV viral load ≥200c/ml in the previous 12 months. Age at first sex and number of sexual partners were similar among PHIV and HIV-, and comparable to normative data. In conclusion, small numbers of PHIV reported condomless sex with a detectable viral load, which could result in HIV transmission, indicating the need for targeted sexual health and ART adherence interventions for young people with perinatal HIV.