Female Genital Circumcision and the Risk of HIV Infection Among the Kikuyu People of Kenya: A Propensity Scores Analysis

• Activity Number: 554
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Alula Hadgu* and Maya R. Sternberg
• Companies: CDC and CDC
• Keywords: propensity score ; hiv ; female genital circumcision

Abstract

Researchers hypothesize that female genital cutting (FGC) may facilitate HIV transmission because, women who had undergone FGC may suffer from infection and scarring. The analysis in this work is based on the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of FGC and HIV in the largest ethnic group of Kenya, the Kikuyus and to study the relationship between self reported FGC and laboratory confirmed HIV in this group. The prevalence of FGC and HIV among the Kikuyus are 33.84% [95% CI, 28.89 to 39.17] and 6.65% [95% CI, 5.01 % to 8.97%], respectively. Several respondent covariates related to FGC and HIV practices and their interaction terms were used in the formulation of the propensity scores analysis. When we reexamined the baseline characteristics of the circumcised and uncircumcised groups after adjustment for propensity score, there were no longer statistically significant differences, indicating the presence of covariate balance. The propensity scores adjusted odds ratio for FGC was 1.15 [95% CI, 0.58 to 2.29]. Propensity score analysis suggested that FGC didn't increase the risk of HIV in this group significantly.