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Frye M, Chae S. Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural Malawi. Demogr Res. 2017;37:251-294doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10.
Frye, M., & Chae, S. (2017). Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural Malawi. Demographic research, 37251-294. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10
Frye, Margaret, and Chae, Sophia. "Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural Malawi." Demographic research vol. 37 (2017): 251-294. doi: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10
Frye M, Chae S. Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural Malawi. Demogr Res. 2017;37:251-294. doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10. Epub 2017 Aug 08. PMID: 29242708; PMCID: PMC5726561.
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Demogr Res. 2017;37:251-294. doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10. Epub 2017 Aug 08.

Physical attractiveness and women's HIV risk in rural Malawi.

Demographic research

Margaret Frye, Sophia Chae

Affiliations

  1. Princeton University, USA.
  2. Population Council, USA. The author's affiliation is included for informational purposes only. This work was not conducted under the auspices of the Population Council.

PMID: 29242708 PMCID: PMC5726561 DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.10

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Qualitative evidence from sub-Saharan Africa, where a generalized AIDS epidemic exists, suggests that attractiveness may play a role in shaping individual-level HIV risk. Attractive women, who are often blamed for the epidemic and stigmatized, are believed to pose a higher HIV risk because they are viewed as having more and riskier partners.

OBJECTIVE: We examine the association between perceived attractiveness and HIV infection and risk in rural Malawi in the midst of the country's severe AIDS epidemic.

METHODS: We use interviewers' ratings of respondents' attractiveness, along with HIV test results and women's assessments of their own likelihood of infection, to estimate the association between perceived attractiveness and HIV infection and risk for a random sample of 961 women aged 15-35.

RESULTS: Results show that women who are rated by interviewers as 'much less' or 'less' attractive than other women their age are 9% more likely to test positive for HIV. We also find that attractiveness is associated with women's own assessments of their HIV risk: Among women who tested negative, those perceived as 'much less' or 'less' attractive than average report themselves to be at greater risk of HIV infection.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that attractiveness is negatively associated with HIV risk in Malawi, countering local beliefs that hold attractive women responsible for perpetuating the epidemic.

CONTRIBUTION: This study highlights the need to consider perceived physical attractiveness, and sexual desirability more broadly, as an under-examined axis of inequality in HIV risk in high-prevalence settings.

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