ABSTRACT
The concept of adapting to HIV risk emphasizes the diversity of reactions that the AIDS epidemic has triggered in the population. These reactions include abstaining temporarily from sex, selecting or avoiding certain partners or meeting places, testing partners before sexual relations, using the condom, talking about the partner’s sexual past, and taking an HIV antibody test to reassure oneself and/or permit oneself to continue a certain sexual lifestyle. The various ways of adapting to HIV risk combine different means in varying proportions and derive from various types of logic. This chapter analyses the ways that the issue of ‘behaviour change’ was approached and operationalized in the various questionnaires. It focuses on general trends in the associations of certain socio-demographic factors, such as gender, age, marital status, level of education, and number of partners, than on the overall inter-survey differences.
