ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss the concept of risk and present data on selected highrisk practices from the European sexual surveys conducted between 1987 and 1993. The prevalence of these practices are analyzed with respect to age group and gender and compared between countries. In addition, one of the practices (having had more than five partners during the past year) is analyzed within countries with respect to cohabitational status, place of residence and gender of the sexual partner; the degree of association with these background variables is then compared between countries. The prevalence of risk-related practices can be seen as estimates of the proportions of the population with a potential risk of becoming infected with HIV. The extent to which such estimates actually correlate with the occurrence of HIV infection is discussed.
