Nuptial Strategies for Managing the Risk of HIV Infection in Rural Malawi

Georges Reniers, University of Pennsylvania

In a context where the transmission of HIV largely operates via heterosexual contact and where no cure or vaccine is available, behavioral changes are thought crucial for containing the epidemic. Most often it is abstinence, condom use and faithfulness that receive attention in this context, but these strategies sometimes lack realism (e.g. abstinence) or are beyond the control of women (e.g. condom use or faithfulness of the partner). In this contribution I investigate partner choice and divorce as two other behavioral strategies that women in rural Malawi deploy to manage their exposure to HIV. The analysis consist of two parts. In the first part, temporal changes in aggregate level indices of nuptiality characteristics are compared with trends in AIDS mortality. The second part tests the association between perceived risk of exposure to HIV and marriage practices. The longitudinal character of the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project is exploited to avoid problems of reverse causality.