Intimate partner violence, behaviours associated with risk of HIV acquisition and condom use in married women in Manicaland, East Zimbabwe: An HIV prevention cascade analysis.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread in the WHO African region with generalised HIV epidemics and may contribute to ongoing HIV transmission through its associations with behaviours associated with HIV acquisition risk and low use of prevention methods particularly in marital relationships.

Methods: We conducted a male condom HIV prevention cascade analysis using data from a general-population survey in Manicaland, Zimbabwe (July 2018-December 2019) to develop an understanding of how interventions that reduce IPV might be built upon to also reduce HIV incidence. Multivariable logistic regression was used to measure associations between currently-married HIV-negative women's experience of IPV and: (1) being in the priority population for HIV prevention methods (i.

Dynamic HIV risk differentiation among youth: Validation of a tool for prioritization of prevention in East Zimbabwe.

Background: Differentiating risk for HIV infection is important for providing focussed prevention options to individuals. We conducted a longitudinal study to validate a risk-differentiation tool for predicting HIV or HSV-2 acquisition among HIV-negative youth.

Setting: Population-based household survey in east Zimbabwe.

The impact of COVID-19 on sexual risk behaviour for HIV acquisition in east Zimbabwe: An observational study.

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions have the potential to alter sexual risk behaviours for HIV acquisition with important implications for HIV prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, no large-scale data have been published to substantiate hypothesised changes in sexual risk behaviours. We used longitudinal survey data to assess the impact of Covid-19 on sexual risk behaviours in east Zimbabwe.

Relationship between psychological distress, health behaviours and future reports of hypertension among adults in East Zimbabwe: a cohort study.

Introduction: Extensive cross-sectional evidence has demonstrated an association between psychological distress (PD) and hypertension. However, evidence on the temporal relationship is limited, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. The role of health risk behaviours including smoking and alcohol consumption in this relationship is also largely unknown.

Associations between HIV status and self-reported hypertension in a high HIV prevalence sub-Saharan African population: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This study examined whether HIV status and antiretroviral therapy (ART) exposure were associated with self-reported hypertension in Zimbabwe.

Design: Study data were taken from a cross-sectional, general population survey, which included HIV testing (July 2018-December 2019).

Setting: The data were collected in Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe.

Status of the HIV epidemic in Manicaland, east Zimbabwe prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Manicaland province in eastern Zimbabwe has a high incidence of HIV. Completion of the seventh round of the Manicaland Survey in 2018-2019 provided the opportunity to assess the state of the epidemic prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims were to: a) estimate HIV seroprevalence and assess whether prevalence has declined since the last round of the survey (2012-2013), b) describe and analyse the socio-demographic and behavioural risk factors for HIV infection and c) describe the HIV treatment cascade.

Age patterns of HIV incidence in eastern and southern Africa: a modelling analysis of observational population-based cohort studies.

Background: As the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa matures, evidence about the age distribution of new HIV infections and how this distribution has changed over the epidemic is needed to guide HIV prevention. We aimed to assess trends in age-specific HIV incidence in six population-based cohort studies in eastern and southern Africa, reporting changes in mean age at infection, age distribution of new infections, and birth cohort cumulative incidence.

Methods: We used a Bayesian model to reconstruct age-specific HIV incidence from repeated observations of individuals' HIV serostatus and survival collected among population HIV cohorts in rural Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, in a collaborative analysis of the ALPHA network.

Evaluating distributional regression strategies for modelling self-reported sexual age-mixing.

The age dynamics of sexual partnership formation determine patterns of sexually transmitted disease transmission and have long been a focus of researchers studying human immunodeficiency virus. Data on self-reported sexual partner age distributions are available from a variety of sources. We sought to explore statistical models that accurately predict the distribution of sexual partner ages over age and sex.

Comprehensive investigation of sources of misclassification errors in routine HIV testing in Zimbabwe.

Introduction: Misclassification errors have been reported in rapid diagnostic HIV tests (RDTs) in sub-Saharan African countries. These errors can lead to missed opportunities for prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT), early infant diagnosis and adult HIV-prevention, unnecessary lifelong antiretroviral treatment (ART) and wasted resources. Few national estimates or systematic quantifications of sources of errors have been produced.