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A review of the literature examining the relationship between alcohol use and HIV‐related sexual risk‐taking in young people
Author(s) -
DONOVAN CATHERINE,
McEWAN ROBERT
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1995.9033192.x
Subject(s) - acknowledgement , psychology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , context (archaeology) , population , sexual behavior , sexual relationship , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , human sexuality , environmental health , sociology , gender studies , computer security , family medicine , geography , computer science , archaeology
Young people have been targeted as a potentially vulnerable population for the spread of HIV. The influence of alcohol on sexual behaviour is pan of popular knowledge. More recently, studies have attempted to illuminate the relationship between alcohol use and sexual risk‐taking in relation to HIV transmission. In our review of the literature three important points are highlighted for researchers in this area. First, methodological problems make establishing any relationship extremely difficult. Secondly, the concept of sexual risk‐taking has to be developed to include acknowledgement of the context in which sex takes place rather than defining risk only in terms of sexual acts. Finally, populations of gay men and men who have sex with men and lesbians are sufficiently different from heterosexuals, with regard to the influence of alcohol on sexual behaviour, to make generalizations about one population inappropriate for the other.