Marriage, not Religion, is Associated with HIV Infection Among Women in Rural Malawi

Abstract

Despite the fact that religious affiliation is almost universal in Malawi, and religious denomination could potentially influence HIV-risk behaviors, limited data exist on its role of in HIV infection in this setting. This study was conducted to assess whether religious denominational affiliation, religiosity or place of residence were associated with sexual behaviors and HIV infection among Christian women. A total of 63 of 939 women with HIV test results (6.7%) were HIV infected. There was no association between religion or frequency of church attendance and HIV infection or condom use within the current or most recent marriage. Compared to women who lived in a village which was neither the husband's village nor her own village, women living with spouse in her own village or living in a husband's village were less likely to be HIV infected.

“We Reach to People Through Different Means”: Factors That Influence HIV Counseling and Testing Among Religious People in Lilongwe, Malawi

“…Our findings on the limited promotion of condom use concur with what was raised in earlier studies in Malawi where seemingly most religious groups discourage premarital sex (Muula, 2010) with religious leaders strongly stressing the importance of abstinence and fidelity in marriage for both men and women (Rankin et al, 2016). Religious leaders fear that an acceptance of condoms would promote infidelity and undermine the message of abstinence which is core to religious beliefs (Muula, 2010;Ochillo et al, 2017). An earlier study stated that other religious leaders would encourage condom use to their members when privately consulted (Ochillo et al, 2017) while others recommended them when one is at risk of contracting HIV (Rakotoniana et al, 2014).…”

“…The silence could also stem from the uneasiness that comes with talking about sexual issues (Lindgren et al, 2013) and again the dilemma that is faced by religious leaders in wanting to uphold their religious values against the use of condoms while being cognisant of the secular demands and the divergent views held by followers (Ochillo et al, 2017). Our findings on the limited promotion of condom use concur with what was raised in earlier studies in Malawi where seemingly most religious groups discourage premarital sex (Muula, 2010) with religious leaders strongly stressing the importance of abstinence and fidelity in marriage for both men and women (Rankin et al, 2016). Religious leaders fear that an acceptance of condoms would promote infidelity and undermine the message of abstinence which is core to religious beliefs (Muula, 2010; Ochillo et al, 2017).…”

Condoms in sub-Saharan Africa

“…27 However, no association between religious affiliation and condom use was found in an analysis of DHS data from Ghana. 28 Two studies using various measures of religiosity, the first with Christian women drawn from the same Malawian sample as above 29 and the second with a Muslim sample of university students in Senegal, 30 found no associations between religiosity and condom use. These results suggest there may be variations by region of SSA, age and marital status, and between religious affiliation and religiosity that require further research to identify patterns.…”

Understanding culture and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Later, Trinitapoli (2009) found that religion in Malawi had a negligible role in the promotion of abstinence, faithfulness and condom use, despite the efforts of the clergy to promote some or all of these behaviours. Muula (2010) similarly found no relationship between religious denomination or church attendance and HIV status or condom use in a study of Christian women in Malawi. Subsequently, Muula, Thomas, Pettifor, Strauss, Suchindran and Meshnick (2012), using a database of 2609 women in Malawi, failed to find any differences in HIV prevalence based on religious affiliation (either between Christians or Muslims or amongst various Christian denominations).…”