Personal History of Violence & Discrimination and Assertive Communication with Sexual Partners

We examine the association between personal history of violence and perceived discrimination and assertive communication with sexual partners among adult men and women interviewed as part of a baseline intervention study in a semi-rural area in southern Louisiana.  Both personal history of violence and experiences of discrimination have been linked to sexual risk-related behaviors in the literature. Bivariate analyses demonstrated a significant association between recent reported experience of physical abuse and use of a condom with vaginal sex partners (Likelihood Ratio chi-square 11.60, p=.021), and sexual abuse and use of a condom with vaginal sex partners (LR 16.27, p= .003). Reported condom use with anal sex partners was similarly negatively correlated with sexual (LR 15.26, p=.004) and emotional abuse (LR 11.04, p=.026) in the last year. Those respondents reporting lifetime physical and sexual violence victimization more likely to ask casual sexual partners about HIV status (physical abuse OR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.89, 4.70) (sexual abuse OR: 3.12, 95% CI: 1.98, 4.90) and more likely to ask steady partners about status (physical abuse OR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.97, 2.95) (sexual abuse OR: 1.71, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.59). Experience of discrimination was significantly negatively correlated with condom use for vaginal (LR 14.56, p=.001), oral (LR 17.56, p=.000), and anal sex (LR 7.44, p=.024) and positively correlated with asking sexual partners about status (casual partners: LR 10.39, p=.001) (steady partners:LR 10.52, p=.001). Overall findings suggest an association between history of violence and discrimination across a range of settings with both condom negotiation and asking partners about HIV status.