Serodiscordance predictors among couples in the HIV context: implications for health care

Background: After HIV diagnosis, people maintain, reestablish their sexual lives, or build new relationships, often with HIV seronegative partners. Therefore, understanding the factors concerning couple-vulnerability is essential in order to design effective HIV preventive strategies. We examined HIV serodiscordant couples prevalence and their associated factors from a Brazilian city.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical study carried out with people living with HIV (PLHIV) who had an active sex life and were engagement in HIV health care follow-up. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire during individual interviews. We analyzed data using bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses.

Results: There was 72.0% of HIV serodiscordant partnerships. Those who inconsistently used condoms (aOR: 0.3[0.13-0.7]) and/or had HIV detectable viral load (aOR: 0.29 [0.12-0.7]) were less likely to have an HIV serodiscordant sexual partner. On other hand, the lack of HIV transmission counseling by the health service (aOR: 5.08 [2.02-12.76]), or those who had a casual partner (aOR: 8.12 [1.7-38.8]) or a steady and casual one concomitantly (aOR: 24.82 [1.46-420.83]), were more likely to indicate an HIV serodiscordant partnership.

Conclusion: The findings showed a high prevalence of serodiscordant partnerships in PLHIV. Greater visibility among couples in the health services is needed as well as a reassessment in order to provide PLHIV and their sexual partners with care strategies, by the health professionals.