Why is this important?
A million youths in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV annually. Girls are at up to three times the risk of boys. Transactional and age-disparate sex (‘sugar daddies’) are a key cause of HIV-infection. Systematic reviews show limited effectiveness of behavioural HIV-prevention programmes. Cash transfers to alleviate poverty may be helpful.
The research:
Longitudinal survey, 3,515 children aged 10–18 (<2.5% refusal, 96.8% retention rate), 2009–12.
Stratified random sampling of entire census enumeration areas in rural and urban sites in two South African provinces (Western Cape andMpumalanga).
Propensity score matching to replicate randomised controlled trial conditions, additional check in multivariate logistic regression