Concurrent sexual partnerships among African Americans in the rural south.

Purpose: To investigate concurrent sexual partnerships among heterosexual African Americans, 18 to 59 years old, in rural North Carolina.

Methods: Household interviews with persons randomly selected from the NC driver's license file were conducted to identify overlap among the 3 most recent sexual partnerships.

Results: Concurrency prevalence in the past 5 years was 53% (men) and 31% (women). Most (61%) respondents believed that a recent partner had had a concurrent partnership. Multivariate analysis revealed strong associations between concurrency and male gender, being unmarried, age of sexual debut, and incarceration of a sex partner.

Conclusions: Concurrent partnerships may increase rates of heterosexual HIV among blacks in the rural Southeastern United States. Future research should examine the context that supports this network pattern.