Introduction: Whether early antiretroviral therapy ART initiation could impact sexual risk behaviours remains to be documented.
We aimed to investigate changes in sexual behaviours within the 24 months following an early versus standard ART initiation in HIV-positive adults with high CD4 counts. Indicators of sexual behaviours included 1 sexual activity in the past year, 2 multiple partnership in the past year, 3 unprotected sex at last intercourse and 4 risky sex i.
Among participants with standard ART, sexual behaviours showed similar trends over time. These decreases mostly occurred within the 12 months following enrolment in the trial in both groups and prior to ART initiation in participants with standard ART.
For unprotected sex and risky sex, decreases were or tended to be more pronounced among patients reporting that their last sexual partner was non-cohabiting. We did not observe any evidence of a risk compensation phenomenon associated with early ART initiation. These results illustrate the potential behavioural preventive effect of early entry into care, which goes hand in hand with early ART initiation.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials. Abstract Introduction: Whether early antiretroviral therapy ART initiation could impact sexual risk behaviours remains to be documented.
