Paper by INTREC student selected as Paper of the Month by UNAIDS Science

Sally Mtenga, lead author of a noted paper published in BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections that explores how long-distance truck drivers and villagers in rural southeastern Tanzania think about heterosexual anal sex, started the paper while receiving training at the Harvard Pop Center as part of the INDEPTH Training and Research Centers of Excellence (INTREC) program.

For sexually active women, age not a factor in their sexual satisfaction

RWJF Health & Society program alumna Rebecca Thurston, PhD, is co-author on a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine that found that for women, sexual satisfaction is influenced more by the quality of their relationship, their communication with their partner, and the importance they place on sex than by their age.

Peers influence sexual activity among adolescents in Ghana

Former Harvard Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar Jeffrey “Bart” Bingenheimer, PhD, is lead author on a study published in Studies in Family Planning that explores the influences of peers on the sexual activity of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings suggest that the most effective strategy to target at-risk adolescent boys would include peer-based interventions.

Are older sexual partners a major risk factor for HIV for young women in sub-Saharan Africa?

Although it is commonly thought that older sexual partners are a major risk factor for HIV for young women in sub-Saharan Africa (and there have been public health campaigns launched to discourage these relationships) in a recent study co-authored by Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty members Ichiro Kawachi, SV Subramanian, and Till Bärnighausen partner age-disparity did not predict HIV acquisition amongst young women.